Remembering to go to the polls: A study of planning in a naturalistic context

Research into planning in naturalistic settings is limited in comparison to its laboratory-based counterpart, which hinders the investigation of how age, planning, and ecological validity interact. The present study investigated planning in the naturalistic context of remembering to vote at a polling station in a general election. Surveys were distributed the day after the 2017 UK general election, and participants reported on how they had planned to remember to go and vote. Whilst the majority of participants were motivated and successfully remembered to vote, the findings showed large variation in the extent and type of plans that participants made. The main finding was that increasing age predicted less detailed planning. In addition, a large proportion of participants formed ‘activity-based’ intentions to vote in contrast to the ‘event-based’ and ‘time-based’ intentions commonly researched in laboratory studies of delayed intentions. Future directions for planning research in light of these findings are discussed.