This prick of social pressure increased voting rates by eight percentage points over the baseline rate, ab bfinding that surprised even the professors behind it — Yale political scientists Donald P. Green and Alan S. Gerber (University of Northern Iowa assistant professor of political science Christopher W. Larimer also worked on the experiment. After all, scholars and campaigns had already studied direct mail extensively and found that it didn’t matter how colorful the mailing was or what it said — nobody could find an effect of more than a percentage point. But they hadn’t studied social pressure. We analyzed it fora week to see if there was some mistake or something was missing Green said. Nothing changed The experiment worked like this During the 2006 Michigan primary elections, about 200,000 voters got no mailing. This control group voted at a rate of 29.7 percent. Then came the four mailings, each to 38,000 voters. Group 1 was told, Do your civic duty and vote This increased turnout to 31.5 percent. Group 2 also got the civic duty reminder and then was told, You are being studied (Members of Group 2 were informed that researchers would be watching them, though the results would remain confidential. This increased turnout to 32.2 percent. Group 3 got the civic duty reminder as well, plus information on whether they voted in the past election. They were also told, Who votes is public information This increased turnout to 34.5 percent.
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