Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-ndmmz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-30T10:41:51.568Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Can Conversing with a Computer Increase Turnout? Mobilization Using Chatbot Communication

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2020

Christopher B. Mann Open the ORCID record for Christopher B. Mann [Opens in a new window]
Christopher B. Mann*
Affiliation:
Skidmore College, Political Science, 815 N Broadway, Saratoga Springs, NY, 12866, USA, e-mail: christopherbmann@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

According to the burgeoning voter mobilization field experiments literature, impersonal contact has little-to-no effect. A conversation with a computer is, by definition, an impersonal interaction. However, chatbots are form of communication wherein a computer imitates conversations by interacting using natural language. Human-to-chatbot interactions are often perceived as similar to human-to-human interactions. How ubiquitous are chatbots? Just ask Siri, Cortana, Bixby, or Alexa, or ask for help on any e-commerce website (these are each chatbots). A simple voter mobilization treatment reminding users of a political chatbot (Resistbot) to vote and providing information about polling locations and hours increased turnout by 1.8 percentage points in a 2019 election. The results replicate previously unpublished field experiments by Resistbot in 2018 that found smaller but statistically significant increases in turnout.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Experimental Political Science , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , Spring 2021 , pp. 51 - 62
Copyright
© The Experimental Research Section of the American Political Science Association 2020

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.)

Footnotes

*

I am grateful to Jason Putorti of Resistbot for sharing the data from the experiments with unrestricted right to publish. This research received financial support from Resistbot in the form of (1) access to data and (2) a small payment (<$2500) to the primary investigator as compensation for time to analyze the data and prepare a memo for Resistbot funders. The contract between the primary investigator and Resistbot guaranteed unrestricted publication rights using the data. Resistbot did not have a right to review, nor did it review, the manuscript prior to submission. I thank the reviewers and Associate Editor for valuable comments to improve the paper. All analysis and interpretation are my responsibility. The data, code, and any additional materials required to replicate all analyses in this article are available at the Journal of Experimental Political Science Dataverse within the Harvard Dataverse Network at https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/BBPLQH.

References

American National Election Studies. 2019. User’s Guide and Codebook for the ANES 2016 Time Series Study. University of Michigan and Stanford University. https://electionstudies.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/anes_timeseries_2016_userguidecodebook.pdf.Google Scholar
Anderson, Cameron D., Loewen, Peter J. and McGregor, R. Michael. 2018. Implementation Intentions, Information, and Voter Turnout: An Experimental Study. Political Psychology 39(5): 1089–1103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arceneaux, Kevin, Kousser, Thad and Mullin, Megan. 2012. Get out the Vote-by-Mail? A Randomized Field Experiment Testing the Effect of Mobilization in Traditional and Vote-by-Mail Precincts. Political Research Quarterly 65(4): 882–894.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arceneaux, Kevin and Nickerson, David W.. 2009. Who Is Mobilized to Vote? A Re-Analysis of 11 Field Experiments. American Journal of Political Science 53(1): 1–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bennion, Elizabeth A. and Nickerson, David W.. 2016. I Will Register and Vote, If You Teach Me How: A Field Experiment Testing Voter Registration in College Classrooms. PS: Political Science & Politics 49(4): 867–871.Google Scholar
Bond, Robert M., Fariss, Christopher J., Jones, Jason J., Kramer, Adam D. I., Marlow, Cameron, Settle, Jaime E. and Fowler, James H.. 2012. A 61-Million-Person Experiment in Social Influence and Political Mobilization. Nature 489(7415): 295–298.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Braconnier, Celine, Dormagen, Jean-Yves and Pons, Vincent. 2017. Voter Registration Costs and Disenfranchisement: Experimental Evidence from France. American Political Science Review 111(3): 584–604.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ciechanowski, Leon, Przegalinska, Aleksandra, Magnuski, Mikolaj and Gloor, Peter. 2019. In the Shades of the Uncanny Valley: An Experimental Study of Human–Chatbot Interaction. Future Generation Computer Systems 92: 539–548.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Costa, Mia, Schaffner, Brian F. and Prevost, Alicia. 2018. Walking the Walk? Experiments on the Effect of Pledging to Vote on Youth Turnout. PLoS One 13(5): e0197066.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dale, Allison and Strauss, Aaron. 2009. Don’t Forget to Vote: Text Message Reminders as a Mobilization Tool. American Journal of Political Science 53(4): 787–804.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duggan, Maeve. 2012. Cell Phone Activities 2012. Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech. https://www.pewinternet.org/2012/11/25/cell-phone-activities-2012/.Google Scholar
Garcia Bedolla, Lisa and Michelson, Melissa R.. 2012. Mobilizing Inclusion: Transforming the Electorate Through Get-Out-the-Vote Campaigns. New Haven: Yale University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gerber, Alan S., Huber, Gregory A., Doherty, David, Dowling, Conor M. and Hill, Seth J.. 2013. Do Perceptions of Ballot Secrecy Influence Turnout? Results from a Field Experiment. American Journal of Political Science 57(3): 537–551.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, Donald P. and Gerber, Alan S.. 2019. Get Out the Vote: How to Increase Voter Turnout. 4th ed. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Ha, S. E. and Karlan, D. S.. 2009. Get-Out-The-Vote Phone Calls: Does Quality Matter? American Politics Research 37(2): 353–369.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haenschen, Katherine. 2016. Social Pressure on Social Media: Using Facebook Status Updates to Increase Voter Turnout. Journal of Communication 66(4): 542–563.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haenschen, Katherine and Jennings, Jay. 2019. Mobilizing Millennial Voters with Targeted Internet Advertisements: A Field Experiment. Political Communication 36(3): 357–375.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herrnson, Paul S., Hanmer, Michael J. and Koh, Ho Youn. 2019. Mobilization Around New Convenience Voting Methods: A Field Experiment to Encourage Voting by Mail with a Downloadable Ballot and Early Voting. Political Behavior 41: 871–895. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-018-9474-4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hill, Jennifer, Ford, W. Randolph and Farreras, Ingrid G.. 2015. Real Conversations with Artificial Intelligence: A Comparison between Human–Human Online Conversations and Human–Chatbot Conversations. Computers in Human Behavior 49: 245–250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ho, Annabell, Hancock, Jeff and Miner, Adam S.. 2018. Psychological, Relational, and Emotional Effects of Self-Disclosure after Conversations with a Chatbot. Journal of Communication 68(4): 712–733.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ladini, Riccardo and Vezzoni, Cristiano. 2019. An Email Won’t Get Me to the Ballot Box. Evidence from a «Get Out the Vote» Experiment in an Italian University Election. Comunicazione politica 2019(3): 321–344.Google Scholar
Lazer, David M. J., Baum, Matthew A., Benkler, Yochai, Berinsky, Adam J., Greenhill, Kelly M., Menczer, Filippo, Metzger, Miriam J., Nyhan, Brendan, Pennycook, Gordon, Rothschild, David, Schudson, Michael, Sloman, Steven A., Sunstein, Cass R., Thorson, Emily A., Watts, Duncan J. and Zittrain, Jonathan L.. 2018. The Science of Fake News. Science 359(6380): 1094–1096. https://science.sciencemag.org/content/359/6380/1094 (December 10, 2019).CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leighley, Jan E. and Nagler, Jonathan. 2013. Who Votes Now? Demographics, Issues, Inequality, and Turnout in the United States. 1st ed. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malhotra, Neil, Michelson, Melissa R. and Valenzuela, Ali Adam. 2012. Emails from Official Sources Can Increase Turnout. Quarterly Journal of Political Science 7(3): 321–332.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mann, Christopher. 2020. Replication Data For: Can Conversing with a Computer Increase Turnout? Mobilization Using Chatbot Communication. Journal of Experimental Political Science. https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/BBPLQH. Harvard Dataverse, V1, UNF:6:Iyrty7rlbyC+J301S39Yyg== [fileUNF].CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mann, Christopher B. and Bryant, Lisa A.. 2019. If You Ask, They Will Come (to Register and Vote): Field Experiments with State Election Agencies on Encouraging Voter Registration. Electoral Studies. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261379418303469 (March 20, 2019).Google Scholar
Marley, Patrick and Beck, Molly. 2019. Brian Hagedorn Declares Victory in Tight Wisconsin Supreme Court Race That Has Both Campaigns Bracing for a Recount. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (April 3, 2019).Google Scholar
Michelson, Melissa R., Bedolla, Lisa García and McConnell, Margaret A.. 2009. Heeding the Call: The Effect of Targeted Two-Round Phone Banks on Voter Turnout. The Journal of Politics 71(4): 1549–1563.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nickerson, David W. 2007. Does Email Boost Turnout? Quarterly Journal of Political Science 2(4): 369–379.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nickerson, David W. and Rogers, Todd. 2010. Do You Have a Voting Plan? Implementation Intentions, Voter Turnout, and Organic Plan Making. Psychological Science 21(2): 194–199.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peters, Adele. 2017. Resistbot Turns Your Angry Trump Texts Into Faxes To Congress. Fast Company. https://www.fastcompany.com/3069103/resistbot-turns-your-angry-trump-texts-into-faxes-to-congress.Google Scholar
Peterson, Becky. 2017. Resistbot Overloaded by Users Trying to Fax Congress about GOP Healthcare - Business Insider. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/resistbot-overloaded-users-fax-congress-about-gop-healthcare-2017-9.Google Scholar
Putorti, Jason. 2017a. The Robot of the Resistance: Where Resistbot Has Gone in Its First 180 Days, and What’s Next. Medium. https://resistbot.news/the-robot-of-the-resistance-2b40d2703794.Google Scholar
Putorti, Jason. 2017b. Welcome to Resistbot V3. Medium. https://resistbot.news/welcome-to-resistbot-v3-5fe513aa457a.Google Scholar
Putorti, Jason. 2019. Yes, Resistbot Is Effective. Medium. https://resistbot.news/yes-resistbot-is-effective-8e14e72a5ed9.Google Scholar
Ramírez, Ricardo. 2005. Giving Voice to Latino Voters: A Field Experiment on the Effectiveness of a National Nonpartisan Mobilization Effort. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 601(1): 66–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Resistbot. 2019. Resistbot. https://resist.bot (October 18, 2019).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schaffner, Brian, Ansolabehere, Stephen and Luks, Sam. 2019. CCES Common Content, 2018. Harvard Dataverse. https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/ZSBZ7K.Google Scholar
Teresi, Holly and Michelson, Melissa R.. 2015. Wired to Mobilize: The Effect of Social Networking Messages on Voter Turnout. The Social Science Journal 52(2): 195–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zack, Elizabeth, Ferguson, Jeff and Cunow, Saul. 2019. Resistbot GOTV Test Results Memo. Washington, DC: Analyst Institute.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: Link

Mann Dataset

Dataset

https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/BBPLQH
Link
Supplementary material: File

Mann Supplementary Materials

Mann Supplementary Materials

Download Mann Supplementary Materials(File)
File 22.8 KB