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

# Are Voters Myopic or Looking for Improvement?

Prior et al., 2026, American Political Science Review — Political Science

Patterns: [Distinctions](https://dsrpevidence.org/pattern/distinctions), [Relationships](https://dsrpevidence.org/pattern/relationships)

## 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.

## 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").

These researchers were not testing DSRP. The finding is theirs; the correspondence to DSRP is drawn by this site.

[Source](https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003055426101853)