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- Title
Walking the walk? Experiments on the effect of pledging to vote on youth turnout.
- Authors
Costa, Mia; Schaffner, Brian F; Prevost, Alicia
- Abstract
Psychological theories of political behavior suggest that commitments to perform a certain action can significantly increase the likelihood of such action, but this has rarely been tested in an experimental context. Does pledging to vote increase turnout? In cooperation with the Environmental Defense Fund during the 2016 election, we conduct the first randomized controlled trials testing whether young people who pledge to vote are more likely to turn out than those who are contacted using standard Get-Out-the-Vote materials. Overall, pledging to vote increased voter turnout by 3.7 points among all subjects and 5.6 points for people who had never voted before. These findings lend support for theories of commitment and have practical implications for mobilization efforts aimed at expanding the electorate.
- Publication
PloS one, 2018, Vol 13, Issue 5, pe0197066
- ISSN
1932-6203
- Publication type
Journal Article
- DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0197066