Walking the walk? Experiments on the effect of pledging to vote on youth turnout

Costa, Mia; Schaffner, Brian F.; Prevost, Alicia Kolar

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0197066

Cited by 25 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Per the leftmost column (1) of the table, having voted in 2008 in Florida is positively associated with subsequent voting in 2016, and being older is associated with greater turnout, ceteris paribus. The latter result is consistent with findings on turnout and age (Costa, Schaffner, and Prevost 2018). Our age estimates in Table A1 are presumably underestimated; the model that generates them excludes the youngest voters in 2016, who could not legally register to vote in Florida in 2008, and younger registered voters are, ceteris paribus, less likely to turn out to vote (Shino and Smith 2018).…”

Section: Effects Of 2012 Lines On 2016 Turnoutsupporting

confidence: 89%

Voting Lines, Equal Treatment, and Early Voting Check-In Times in Florida

Cottrell¹,

Herron

Smith

2021

State Politics Policy Q.

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Lines at the polls raise the cost of voting and can precipitate unequal treatment of voters. Research on voting lines is nonetheless hampered by a fundamental measurement problem: little is known about the distribution of time voters spend in line prior to casting ballots. We argue that early, in-person voter check-in times allow us identify individuals who waited in line to vote. Drawing on election administrative records from two General Elections in Florida—1,031,179 check-ins from 2012 and 1,846,845 from 2016—we find that minority voters incurred disproportionately long wait times in 2012 and that in-person voters who waited excessively in 2012 had a slightly lower probability—approximately one percent—of turning out to vote in 2016, ceteris paribus. These individuals also had slightly lower turnout probabilities in the 2014 Midterm Election, ceteris paribus. Our results draw attention to the ongoing importance of the administrative features of elections that influence the cost of voting and ultimately the extent to which voters are treated equally.

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Section: Effects Of 2012 Lines On 2016 Turnoutsupporting

confidence: 89%

Voting Lines, Equal Treatment, and Early Voting Check-In Times in Florida

Cottrell¹,

Herron

Smith

2021

State Politics Policy Q.

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“…Pledging has been a popular way in the COVID‐19 pandemic for concerned groups to encourage social distancing 28 . Prior research indicates that pledging to engage in prosocial behavior (e.g., voting, environmental protection) has a small but significant effect on increasing the desired outcome 29 …”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emergency Physicians and Personal Narratives Improve the Perceived Effectiveness of COVID‐19 Public Health Recommendations on Social Media: A Randomized Experiment

Solnick

Chao

Ross

et al. 2020

Academic Emergency Medicine

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Background Containment of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic requires the public to change behavior under social distancing mandates. Social media are important information dissemination platforms that can augment traditional channels communicating public health recommendations. The objective of the study is to assess the effectiveness of COVID‐19 public health messaging on Twitter when delivered by emergency physicians and containing personal narratives. Methods On April 30, 2020, we randomly assigned 2007 U.S. adults to an online survey using a 2x2 factorial design. Participants rated 1 of 4 simulated Twitter posts varied by messenger type (emergency physician vs federal official) and content (personal narrative vs impersonal guidance). Main outcomes were: perceived message effectiveness (35‐point scale); perceived attitude effectiveness (15‐point scale); likelihood to share Tweets (7‐point scale); and writing a letter to their governor to continue COVID‐19 restrictions (write letter or none). Results The physician/personal message had the strongest effect and significantly improved all main messaging outcomes except for letter‐writing. Unadjusted mean differences between physician/personal and federal/impersonal were: perceived messaging effectiveness (3.2 [95%CI, 2.4‐4.0]); perceived attitude effectiveness (1.3 [95%CI, 0.8‐1.7]); likelihood to share (0.4 [95%CI, 0.15‐0.7]). For letter‐writing, physician/ personal made no significant impact compared to federal/ impersonal (odds ratio 1.14 [95%CI, 0.89‐1.46]). Conclusions Emergency physicians sharing personal narratives on Twitter are perceived to be more effective at communicating COVID‐19 health recommendations compared to federal officials sharing impersonal guidance.

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“…Social pressure interventions have been shown to increase youth voter turnout. Encouraging students to make a pledge to vote that is visible to others is related to higher levels of turnout (Costa et al 2018). The effects of pledging to vote are particularly strong among first-time voters.…”

Section: Social Pressurementioning

confidence: 96%

“…Additionally, pledge to vote treatments are often paired with a cue that reminds individuals of their pledge closer to election day, reinforcing the attitudinal commitment made by individuals in the study. In prior studies of pledge to vote treatments, pledge cards were mailed back to individuals to serve as a reminder of their pledge to vote (Costa et al 2018;Burgess et al 2000).…”

Section: Social Pressurementioning

confidence: 99%

Promoting the Youth Vote: The Role of Informational Cues and Social Pressure

et al. 2021

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Young voters, including college students, turnout less than older citizens-particularly in non-presidential elections. We examine two promising intervention strategies in the 2018 midterm elections: information cues and social pressure. Additionally, we consider whether voting information and social pressure to vote spread to others through social ties. Using a large-scale field experiment involving sections of a university-wide first-year writing seminar, we examine whether informational and social pressure presentations are effective strategies for increasing college student voter turnout. Furthermore, by linking each student in our study to their roommates, we assess whether there were spillover effects from the interventions. Though the treatments did not alone affect turnout, we find positive effects from classroom treatments among first-year students who were registered to vote prior to the presentations. Additionally, we find positive peer spillover effects for turnout from the social pressure treatment when the roommate of the treated student was previously registered to vote.

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Walking the walk? Experiments on the effect of pledging to vote on youth turnout

Cited by 25 publications

References 41 publications

Voting Lines, Equal Treatment, and Early Voting Check-In Times in Florida

Voting Lines, Equal Treatment, and Early Voting Check-In Times in Florida

Emergency Physicians and Personal Narratives Improve the Perceived Effectiveness of COVID‐19 Public Health Recommendations on Social Media: A Randomized Experiment

Promoting the Youth Vote: The Role of Informational Cues and Social Pressure

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