Duration: May 2017 until January 2018

Funding: Fritz Thyssen Foundation

The Wahl-O-Mat research has acquired third-party funding from the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung to analyse the "political sophistication" of citizens in the 2017 Bundestag elections.

In the course of this project, it will be investigated to what extent political knowledge, political interest, political preferences and political participation change through the use of the Wahl-O-Mat. The Wahl-O-Mat for the upcoming Bundestag elections in September 2017 will serve as the object of study. With the help of a representative sample, a four-wave online access panel survey will be conducted. The waves will take place (1) before the Wahl-O-Mat goes online, (2) after the Wahl-O-Mat goes online during the hot election campaign phase, (3) directly after the election and (4) approximately two months after the election. The panel is intended to be representative of the German online population.

Overall, the project results are intended to close existing gaps in the field of research on online voting aids, especially with regard to effects on political behaviour. With a fourth wave only two months after the Bundestag election, medium-term influences will also be examined and analysed in more detail for the first time.