Hostname: page-component-7b9c58cd5d-sk4tg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-03-13T18:48:50.878Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Social Pressure and Voter Turnout: Evidence from a Large-Scale Field Experiment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2008

ALAN S. GERBER ,
DONALD P. GREEN  and
CHRISTOPHER W. LARIMER
ALAN S. GERBER*
Affiliation:
Yale University
DONALD P. GREEN*
Affiliation:
Yale University
CHRISTOPHER W. LARIMER*
Affiliation:
University of Northern Iowa
*
Alan S. Gerber is Professor, Department of Political Science, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520 (alan.gerber@yale.edu).
Donald P. Green is Professor, Department of Political Science, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520.
Christopher W. Larimer is Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Northern Iowa, 1227 West 27th Street, Cedar Falls, IA 50614.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Voter turnout theories based on rational self-interested behavior generally fail to predict significant turnout unless they account for the utility that citizens receive from performing their civic duty. We distinguish between two aspects of this type of utility, intrinsic satisfaction from behaving in accordance with a norm and extrinsic incentives to comply, and test the effects of priming intrinsic motives and applying varying degrees of extrinsic pressure. A large-scale field experiment involving several hundred thousand registered voters used a series of mailings to gauge these effects. Substantially higher turnout was observed among those who received mailings promising to publicize their turnout to their household or their neighbors. These findings demonstrate the profound importance of social pressure as an inducement to political participation.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 102 , Issue 1 , February 2008 , pp. 33 - 48
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Aldrich, John H. 1993. “Rational Choice and Turnout.” American Journal of Political Science 37 (February): 246–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arceneaux, Kevin. 2005. “Using Cluster Randomized Field Experiments to Study Voting Behavior.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 601 (September): 169–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arceneaux, Kevin, Gerber, Alan S., and Green, Donald P.. 2006. “Comparing Experimental and Matching Methods using a Large-Scale Voter Mobilization Experiment.” Political Analysis 14 (Winter): 37–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Asch, Solomon E. 1958. “Effects of Group Pressure upon the Modification and Distortion of Judgments.” In Readings in Social Psychology 3rd edition. ed. Macoby, Eleanor E., Newcomb, Theodore M., and Hartley, Eugene L.. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 174–83.Google Scholar
Bénabou, Roland, and Tirole, Jean. 2003. “Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation.” Review of Economic Studies 70 (July): 489–520.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blais, Andre. 2000. To Vote or Not to Vote? Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bohnet, Iris, and Frey, Bruno S.. 1999. “Social Distance and Other-Regarding Behavior in Dictator Games: Comment.” American Economic Review 89 (March): 335–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brehm, Sharon S., and Brehm, Jack W.. 1981. Psychological Reactance: A Theory of Freedom and Control. New York: Academic Press, 327–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burnham, Terence C. 2003. “Engineering altruism: a theoretical and experimental investigation of anonymity and gift giving.” Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 50 (January): 133–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, Angus, Gurin, George, and Miller, Warren E.. 1954. The Voter Decides. Evanston, IL: Row, Peterson.Google Scholar
Cardy, Emily Arthur. 2005. “An Experimental Field Study of the GOTV and Persuasion Effects of Partisan Direct Mail and Phone Calls.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 601 (September): 28–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cialdini, Robert B., and Goldstein, Noah J.. 2004. “Social Influence: Compliance and Conformity.” Annual Review of Psychology 55 (February): 591–621.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cialdini, Robert B., and Trost, Melanie R.. 1998. “Social Influence: Social Norms, Conformity, and Compliance.” In The Handbook of Social Psychology, 4th edition, ed. Gilbert, Daniel T., Fiske, Susan T., and Lindzey, Gardner. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 151–92.Google Scholar
Deci, Edward L. 1971. “Effects of externally mediated rewards on intrinsic motivation.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 18 (April): 105–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Downs, Anthony. 1957. An Economic Theory of Democracy. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Feddersen, Timothy J. 2004. “Rational Choice Theory and the Paradox of Not Voting.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 18 (Winter): 99–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fiske, Susan T. 2004. Social Beings: A Core Motives Approach to Social Psychology. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Gerber, Alan S. 2004. “Does Campaign Spending Work? Field Experiments Provide Evidence and Suggest New Theory.” American Behavioural Scientific (January) 506–540.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gerber, Alan S., and Green, Donald P.. 2000. “The Effects of Canvassing, Telephone Calls, and Direct Mail on Voter Turnout: A Field Experiment.” American Political Science Review 94 (September): 653–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gerber, Alan S., Green, Donald P., and Green, Matthew N.. 2003. “The Effects of Partisan Direct Mail on Voter Turnout.” Electoral Studies 22 (December): 563–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gerber, Alan S., Green, Donald P., and Shachar, Ron. 2003. “Voting May Be Habit-Forming: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment.” American Journal of Political Science 47 (July): 540–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gerber, Alan S., Grebner, Mark, Green, Donald P., and Larimer, Christopher W.. 2006. “Does Public Knowledge of Neighborhood Voting Records Increase Voter Turnout? A Field Experiment.” Paper prepared for presentation at the Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, IL, April 20–23.Google Scholar
Gerber, Alan S., and Rogers, Todd. 2007. “The Effect of Descriptive Social Norms on Voter Turnout: The importance of accentuating the positive. Yale University manuscript.Google Scholar
Gosnell, Harold F. 1927. Getting-Out-the-Vote: An Experiment in the Stimulation of Voting. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Green, Donald P., and Gerber, Alan S.. 2004. Get Out the Vote: How to Increase Voter Turnout. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Green, Donald P., Gerber, Alan S., and Nickerson, David W.. 2003. “Getting Out the Vote in Local Elections: Results from Six Door-to-Door Canvassing Experiments.” Journal of Politics 65 (November): 1083–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harbaugh, W. T. 1996. “If People Vote because they Like to, then Why do so Many of them Lie?” Public Choice 89 (October): 63–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoffman, Elizabeth, McCabe, Kevin A., Smith, Vernon L.. 1996. “Social Distance and Other-Regarding Behavior in Dictator Games.” American Economic Review 86 (June): 653–60.Google Scholar
Huckfeldt, Robert, and Sprague, John. 1995. Citizens, Politics, and Social Communication: Information and Influence in an Election Campaign. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance. 2005. “Compulsory Voting.” The Voter Turnout Project at International IDEA. Stockholm, Sweden. http://www.idea.int/vt/compulsory_voting.cfm. (February 1, 2006).Google Scholar
Jackman, Robert W. 1987. “Political Institutions and Voter Turnout in the Industrial Democracies.” American Political Science Review 81 (June): 405–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kallgren, Carl A., Reno, Raymond R., and Cialdini, Robert B.. 2000. “A Focus Theory of Normative Conduct: When Norms Do and Do Not Affect Behavior.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 26 (August): 1002–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knack, Stephen. 1992. “Civic Norms, Social Sanctions, and Voter Turnout.” Rationality and Society 4 (May): 133–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knack, Stephen. 2001. “Election-Day Registration: The Second Wave.” American Politics Research 29 (January): 65–78.Google Scholar
Knack, Stephen, and Kropf, Martha E.. 1998. “For Shame! The Effect of Community Cooperative Context on the Probability of Voting.” Political Psychology 19 (September): 585–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ledyard, John O. 1984. “The pure theory of two-candidate elections.” Public Choice 44 (January): 7–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lerner, Jennifer S., and Tetlock, Philip E.. 1999. “Accounting for the effects of accountability.” Psychological Bulletin 125 (March): 255–75.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lepper, Mark R., Greene, David, and Nisbett, Richard E.. 1973. “Undermining Children's Intrinsic Interest with Extrinsic Rewards.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 28 (October): 129–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lijphart, Arend. 1997. “Unequal Participation: Democracy's Unresolved Dilemma.” American Political Science Review 91 (March): 1–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Michelson, Melissa R. 2005. “Meeting the Challenge of Latino Voter Mobilization.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 601 (September): 85–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nickerson, David W. Forthcoming. “Is Voting Contagious? Evidence from Two Field Experiments.” American Political Science Review 102 (February)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nickerson, David W. 2006b. “Volunteer Phone Calls Can Increase Turnout: Evidence from Eight Field Experiments.” American Politics Research 34 (May): 271–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Palfrey, Thomas R., and Rosenthal, Howard. 1985. “Voter Participation and Strategic Uncertainty.” American Political Science Review 79 (March): 62–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plutzer, Eric. 2002. “Becoming a Habitual Voter: Inertia, Resources, and Growth in Young Adulthood.” American Political Science Review 96 (March): 41–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Posner, Richard A., and Rasmusen, Eric B.. 1999. “Creating and Enforcing Norms, With Special Reference to Sanctions.” International Review of Law and Economics 19 (September): 369–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ramirez, Ricardo. 2005. “Giving Voice to Latino Voters: A Field Experiment on the Effectiveness of a National Nonpartisan Mobilization Effort.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 601 (September): 66–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ringold, Debra Jones. 2002. “Boomerang Effects in Response to Public Health Interventions: Some Unintended Consequences in the Alcoholic Beverage Market.” Journal of Consumer Policy 25 (March): 27–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Riker, William H., and Ordershook, Peter C.. 1968. “A Theory of the Calculus of Voting.” American Political Science Review 62 (March): 25–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rind, Bruce, and Benjamin, Daniel. 1994. “Effects of Public Image Concerns and Self-Image on Compliance.” The Journal of Social Psychology 134 (February): 19–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scheff, Thomas J. 2000. “Shame and the Social Bond: A Sociological Theory.” Sociological Theory 18 (March): 84–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schelling, Thomas C. 1978. Micromotives and Macrobehavior. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Schram, Arthur, and van Winden, Frans. 1991. “Why People Vote: Free Riding and the Production and Consumption of Social Pressure.” Journal of Economic Psychology 12 (December): 575–620.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schultz, P. Wesley. 1999. “Changing Behavior With Normative Feedback Interventions: A Field Experiment on Curbside Recycling.” Basic and Applied Social Psychology 21 (March): 25–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seton-Watson, Christopher. 1983. “Italy.” In Democracy and Elections: Electoral Systems and Their Political Consequences, eds. Bogdanor, Vernon and Butler, David. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Stewart, David W., and Martin, Ingrid M.. 1994. “Intended and unintended consequences of warning messages: A review and synthesis of empirical research.” Journal of Public Policy and Marketing 13 (Spring): 1–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trivedi, Neema. 2005. “The Effect of Identify-Based GOTV Direct Mail Appeals on the Turnout of Indian Americans.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 601 (September): 115–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Webster, J. Matthew, Duvall, Jamieson, Gaines, Leslie M., and Smith, Richard H.. 2003. “The Role of Praise and Social Comparison in the Experience of Pride.” The Journal of Social Psychology 143 (April): 209–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whatley, Mark A., Webster, J. Matthew, Smith, Richard H., and Rhodes, Adele. 1999. “The Effect of a Favor on Public and Private Compliance: How Internalized is the Norm of Reciprocity.” Basic and Applied Social Psychology 21 (3): 251–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wong, Janelle S. 2005. “Mobilizing Asian American Voters: A Field Experiment.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 601 (September): 102–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.