Candy Elasticity: Halloween Experiments on Public Political Statements

Abstract

We conducted experiments during trick-or-treating on Halloween in a predominantly liberal neighborhood in the weeks preceding the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections. We decorated one side of a house porch with McCain material in 2008 (Romney material in 2012 and the other side with Obama material. Children were asked to choose a side, with half receiving the same candy on either side and half receiving more candy to go to the McCain/Romney side. This yields a "candy elasticity" of children's political support. Results vary by age: children ages nine and older were two to three times more likely to choose the Republican candidate when offered double candy for voting Republican compared to when offered equal candy, whereas children ages eight and under were particularly sticky and did not waver in their choice of candidate despite the offer of double candy. (JEL C93, D72, D12)

The effect of images of Michelle Obama’s face on trick-or-treaters’ dietary choices: A randomized control trial

“…Furthermore, due to the high level of activity during Halloween, many families drive from further away in order to trick-or-treat in this neighborhood. From an earlier study [ 11 ], we know that the population that trick-or-treats in this neighborhood is heavily liberal politically, with about 79% of children informally "voting" for Obama over McCain in 2008 and 82% for Obama over Romney in 2012.…”

“…To engage in this investigation, over three years, we ran randomized controlled trials during the evenings of Halloween when trick-or-treating was taking place. Prior experiments provide precedence for experimentally evaluating trick-or-treaters’ decision making [ 11 – 12 ]. By analyzing this series of randomized trials, we are able to provide evidence of the impact of viewing images of Michelle Obama’s face on children’s dietary decision-making.…”