Facebook friends’ voting has impact on Election Day turnout, study finds

[alp227]

Source: Washington Post

One message sent to 60 million Facebook users on Election Day 2010 got at least 300,000 additional people to vote, according to a study published Wednesday in Nature magazine.

The message showed the recipient which friends said they had already voted. The result was that the recipient was likely to also go out and vote. In addition, for every user who was persuaded to vote, four friends were as well.

But if no friends were shown as having voted, the message had little impact.

The leader of the research said that 300,000 was a conservative estimate. “The actual number is probably closer to a million people,” said James Fowler, a professor of medical genetics and political science at the University of California at San Diego.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/facebook-friends-voting-has-impact-on-election-day-turnout-study-finds/2012/09/12/92024dd2-fce3-11e1-a31e-804fccb658f9_story.html

[flamingdem]

1. I agree! The earlier the better to remind people who are procrastinators

They see others feel good about voting and the peer pressure thing kicks in

[Ian David]

2. The day before the election, dump all your Conservative friends on Facebook.

You don't want to encourage them to vote.

[flamingdem]

5. hah! good idea

[FailureToCommunicate]

3. So...this worked on the "I forgot it was election day till I checked Facebook" crowd?

[bucolic_frolic]

4. Which makes them the Deciders

in some countries everyone votes. In Australia you are fined for not
voting. It's like $AU100

But here, because not everyone votes, the people least informed, least
involved, perhaps slightly more uneducated or even unintelligent

THESE are the last minute voters that can decide an election.

It's not a good business model.

[axollot]

6. The high voter turn out in Australia..

...also seems to keep the extremists from gaining any kind of majority. When 98% of voters turn out, you get a better balance. When the US has mandatory voting [and it could be done in theory and be constitutional] then we could get rid of the electoral college for the "popular vote" but as they say, an act of Congress it would require! There is a reason they still use voter suppression. Along with voter apathy it's the only way they can get elected.
Cheers
Sandy
/rant off