Study • Civic · Voting
Do You Have a Voting Plan?
Nickerson & Rogers(2010), “Do You Have a Voting Plan?”, Psychological Science
Summary by Mark Egan
The authors conducted a field experiment (N = 287,228) to test efficacy of eliciting implementation intentions when calling potential voters before the 2008 U.S. Presidential election. They found that helping voters elucidate a specific voting plan (what time they would vote, where they would be coming from, and what they would be doing beforehand) increased turnout by 4.1% points among those contacted, but a standard encouragement call and selfprediction of voting behaviour have no effect on eventual turnout. Among single-eligible-voter households, the formation of a voting plan increased turnout among persons contacted by 9.1 percentage points, whereas those in multiple-eligible voter households were unaffected by all scripts. An important paper in terms of rigorous analysis of what motivates voter turnout.
Tactics used
TACTICS
Implementation Intentions
Behaviors addressed
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