Ethnicity and urbanisation have been the most studied predictors of electoral outcomes in Malaysian general elections. In this study, we examine life satisfaction in the political science literature that can also influence Malaysian electoral outcomes. Using data from the World Values Survey conducted in Malaysia shortly before the General Election in 2013, we leverage on responses to a survey question asking respondents to indicate the political party they would vote for if a national election were held the next day, and empirically investigate the relationship between life satisfaction and voting preferences. We find that respondents with higher levels of life satisfaction will have a higher probability of voting for the ruling party, with the magnitude of this effect relatively comparable to that of the ethnic effect. We also empirically show that this outcome is due to the preference for status quo, defined on two levels, in the Malaysian political scene.

中文翻译：

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生活满意度对马来西亚选举投票偏好的作用

种族和城市化一直是马来西亚大选选举结果的研究最多的预测因素。在这项研究中，我们研究了政治科学文献中的生活满意度，这也会影响马来西亚的选举结果。使用 2013 年大选前不久在马来西亚进行的世界价值观调查的数据，我们利用对调查问题的回应，该问题要求受访者指出如果第二天举行全国大选，他们将投票支持哪个政党，并进行实证调查生活满意度与投票偏好之间的关系。我们发现生活满意度较高的受访者将有更高的概率投票支持执政党，这种影响的程度与种族影响的程度相当。