An example of the social "get out the vote" message shown to more than 60 million Facebook users on U.S. Election Day 2010. Note: This is a re-creation (not a screen shot of anyone's actual Facebook page in 2010) and the "friends" pictured are the study coauthors.
(Credit: University of California San Diego )
Facebook may be wielding the power of the polls with peer pressure. According to a new study, when users see that their friends have voted, they're far more likely to go vote themselves.
Titled "A 61-million-person experiment in social influence and political mobilization," the study examines the influence of Facebook friends on voting behaviors. It looks specifically at the U.S. elections in 2010 and concludes that the social network's "get out the vote" message brought more than 300,000 more voters to the polls.
"Our study suggests that social influence may be the best way to increase voter turnout," University of California San Diego professor and lead author of the study James Fowler said in a statement. "Just as importantly, we show that what happens online matters a lot for the 'real world.'"
According to Fowler, the hundreds of thousands of additional voters in 2010 were because of one non-partisan Facebook message on Election Day that said, "Today is Election Day" and had a clickable "I Voted" button along... [Read more]
via CNET http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cnet/NnTv/~3/h2o2syFekSo/
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