Thank you for visiting the Yale Civic Engagement Project!!
What are we studying?
Our goal is to measure the effectiveness of a wide range of political mobilization techniques, such as direct mail, phone canvassing, door-to-door canvassing, leafleting, public service announcements, and email. (See examples of our past work.)
By establishing what works and what doesn't, we will be able to make scientifically sound recommendations about how to raise voter turnout in the United States, which has among the lowest turnout rates of any Western democracy. Our current project examines the use of social networks to motivate the electorate. How persuasive are friends, neighbors, and co-workers in turning out the vote? You can participate in a controlled experiment and help us find out!
How are we studying it?
Our research group conducts randomized controlled experiments just as in medical studies. You provide a list of persons whom you would be willing to talk to about voting in the election November 5th. We'll randomly select half of these people for you to talk to (the treatment group), and the other half will serve as a baseline comparison group (the control group). Since they are randomly selected (think of flipping a coin), the only difference between the two groups will be your contact. After the election, we will then check county clerk records and determine which group voted at a higher rate. Your personal information and the information of the people you submit will be kept confidential and will not be used for any other purpose except this study.
How do I participate?
In order to participate, we ask you to complete 8 simple tasks:
1) Think about who you know (neighbors, co-workers, friends, ... anyone) that may not be a regular voter. Write down the name of anyone who you think could use some extra prodding about voting November 5th and you would be willing to remind.
2) Look up the address of the people you are willing to remind. We need this identifying information to determine whether or not the person voted in the election. Try not to pick more than 1 person per household (we are trying to avoid having treatment and control people in the same household).
3) Click on the link below and type in your contact information.
4) Type in the names and addresses of the people you would would be willing to contact. Think about how many people you have the time to remind in the next couple of weeks and enter twice this many names (because half of the people will end up in the control group). We require at least 4 names.
5) We will instantly select the half of the people for you to contact and display it on the next page. The page will also have an ID number. You will need this ID number to come back if you choose to contact more people after your initial effort and after the election when you tell us who you contacted. Please print this page for your records.
6) In the days preceeding the election (it doesn't matter when particularly) take the time to remind the person to vote. The conversation doesn't need to be long. You can do it via phone, email, in person, at home, at work, after church, at the bowling alley -- whenever is convenient for you. Don't contact the control group about voting (i.e. the people NOT on your list).
7) On the page you printed out, keep a tally of how often you spoke with the person about voting and in what manner.
8) After the election, either use the ID number to log back onto our website and tell us how often you spoke with each person listed about voting, or mail the sheet with the information back to us.
That's it. You're done. You've done your part for democracy and social science research. This can take as little or as much time as you like.
If you do not want to spend much time on this, then list only a few names.
The hope is that you will enjoy participating in the pathbreaking study.
If you have any questions, please contact David Nickerson:
E-Mail: david.nickerson@yale.edu
Phone: 203-773-5041
Mail:
Institute for Social and Policy Studies
Yale University
P.O. Box 208209
New Haven, CT 06520-8209Frequently Asked Questions
1) Why is a control group necessary?
2) Can I read about other studies you have done? Yes
3) Can I still talk to the people in the control group?
Yes, you may certainly go about your daily business and interact with your friends and neighbors. All that we ask is that you talk about voting only with the people listed (and avoid the subject of voting with the control group).4) What will you do with the contact information? Why do you need it?
We will only use the addresses of the people you list to determine whether or not they vote on November 5th. The information will remain secure and not be given to any outside party. Ultimately, our findings will be published in an academic paper but no identifying information will be disclosed of any kind.5) Can I advocate voting for a particular candidate or ballot initiative?
Yes. We don't care whether you remind the person to vote in a partisan or non-partisan manner. All that we ask is that you let us know in the end whether you advocated a particular cause.6) I'd like to help, but everyone I know votes.
While this could be true, it is extremely unlikely. Only a third of the eligible electorate votes in mid-term elections. Even registered voters only go to the polls half of the time. You might be surprised at who votes and who doesn't in your social circle (but you probably also know some people who vote in every election from dog catcher to President).Click on the link below to begin entering people.
If you are returning to add more contacts or enter data, please click on the second link.
Login for returning participants
Remember, you will need your ID to login