Comments on: Subtle word change affects election participation

By: hfud

hfud — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 13:58:01 +0000

No wonder we call clothing “brands.”

By: hfud

hfud — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 13:56:27 +0000

good

By: Gene

Gene — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 19:59:09 +0000

“”voting is essential for a functioning democracy”

Indeed, voting is important…it keeps the illusion of democracy working. And as long as the illusion is in place, the “democracy” can remain “functional”.

By: Matt D

Matt D — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 14:49:48 +0000

“Crucially, the effect also transferred into actions as another study looked at public voting records and found that those who had completed the self-focused survey were actually more likely to vote than those who had completed the action-focused survey.”

By: Chris

Chris — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 04:03:07 +0000

The measure of voting was official state records (not kept strictly private–although they don’t reveal how a person voted only whether they did) so, yes, it translates into real action.

By: Dave

Dave — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 01:50:43 +0000

The argument begs the question- what “good” is higher voter participation?

Assuming such is deemed “good” in an economic sense- what is the casual mechanism? As first stab, higher voluntary voting participation rates might be symptomatic of an “aware” economy. Believing one can have an effect might be an almost-necessity to actually having one.

By: Emmy

Emmy — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 22:50:35 +0000

It would be great if they could conduct the same experiment and determine if the participants *actually* voted in the next election, but I suppose that kind of information is kept strictly private (for good reason – but I still wonder if it translates to real action).

By: Pangolin

Pangolin — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 21:34:50 +0000

The pretense that people have some penultimate “free will” function loses ground every day.

We’re a bundle of language cues and mangled social programs that can be manipulated in predictable ways. Even the people that rebel are predictable when larger numbers are taken into account.

No wonder we call clothing “brands.”