Updated: Where You Vote and How You Vote: Proto-5GW Thinking in a Study of the Context of Voting

| 3 Comments

From NPR News: All Things Considered.

Study: Your Polling Place Affects How You Vote

"June 23, 2008 · A new study shows that where you vote affects how you vote. People who vote in schools, for example, are more likely to support a school funding initiative. The researchers suggest that the same sort of psychology might affect people who vote in churches."

This story caught my attention not only because it has to do with elections (see #3), but because as proto-5GW thinking (not secrecy-shrouded full-on 5GW) it is an observable manipulation of context. Granted, in this particular study the difference in the voting pattern is small, yet with only this one variable of context being affected there is a measurable difference in the effect. I would envision a true 5GW actor affecting multiple variables in order to achieve a desired context and an ultimate effect that has become compounded in the process.

Update:

"Contextual priming: Where people vote affects how they vote"
by Jonah Berger, Marc Meredith , and S. Christian Wheeler 

  

3 Comments

Hmmm... I vote in the golf clubhouse of a country club.

Is this causation or correlation? This seems unlikely to be true (to me).

From the report it does look to be causation. Not only was there an actual vote studied but the researchers did control experiments showing pictures of schools and churches to test subjects. Those who saw the images were more likely to vote for school funding and less likely to support stem-cell research.

I've found the report and will include the link as an update to the post.

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