ABSTRACT

Social pressure can exert a powerful, but sometimes counterproductive, influence on compliance with the social norm of voting. Scholars have tested several implicit social pressure techniques to reduce negative reactions to these methods. Among the most innovative is the use of ‘watching eyes’ in voter mobilization messages. Using three large randomized field experiments, this study attempts to reproduce Panagopoulos and van der Linden’s finding that political partisanship moderates the effect of watching eyes messages on voter turnout. Our findings diverge from previous findings statistically and substantively and indicate partisanship may have limited influence on the effectiveness of watching eyes in mobilizing voters.

摘要

社会压力可以对遵守投票的社会规范产生强大但有时适得其反的影响。学者们测试了几种隐性的社会压力技术，以减少对这些方法的负面反应。其中最具创新性的是在选民动员消息中使用“监视眼睛”。本研究使用三个大型随机实地实验，试图重现Panagopoulos和van der Linden的发现，即政治党派有节制了观看选民投票的视觉效果。我们的发现在统计上和实质上与以前的发现有所不同，表明党派关系对动员选民的观察力影响有限。