Evidence for the irrelevance of irrelevant events

Abstract

The expectation that voters behave rationally has been challenged through studies suggesting that irrelevant events like natural disasters and sports results change voting behavior. We test the effect of irrelevant events by matching candidate-level election results from Irish general (1922-2020) and local elections (1942-2019) with games in the men's Gaelic football and hurling championships, the most popular sports in Ireland. Although Irish citizens care deeply about sports, we fail to find any relationship between match results and support for incumbents or politicians of government parties. These findings hold when applying an unexpected event during survey design to two representative surveys. Our results contribute to the literature on political accountability and point to conditional effects of irrelevant events.