[DSRP Evidence](https://dsrpevidence.org/)

# Are Voters Myopic or Looking for Improvement?

## Details

**Authors** Prior et al.

**Year** 2026

**Publisher** American Political Science Review

**Discipline** Political Science

[Read it at the publisher](https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003055426101853) 
10.1017/s0003055426101853

## In authors' words

### What they found (results)

Across four surveys and six samples, voters preferred candidates or incumbents associated with improving conditions in both retrospective and prospective evaluations — a pattern the authors distinguish from simple over-weighting of the most recent outcome ("the myopic voter").

## Commentary

### In short

Testing two rival explanations of voter judgment shows the one that survives is fundamentally relational: voters track the direction of change across a sequence of outcomes, not any single data point taken in isolation.

**Patterns it shows** D, R

**Added** 2026-09-07

**How to cite this** Prior et al. (2026). Are Voters Myopic or Looking for Improvement?. American Political Science Review.