Social influence in televised election debates: a potential distortion of democracy.
A recent innovation in televised election debates is a continuous response measure (commonly referred to as the "worm") that allows viewers to track the response of a sample of undecided voters in real-time. A potential danger of presenting such data is that it may prevent people from maki...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2011-03-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/21479191/pdf/?tool=EBI |
| _version_ | 1818735205837438976 |
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| author | Colin J Davis Jeffrey S Bowers Amina Memon |
| author_facet | Colin J Davis Jeffrey S Bowers Amina Memon |
| author_sort | Colin J Davis |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | A recent innovation in televised election debates is a continuous response measure (commonly referred to as the "worm") that allows viewers to track the response of a sample of undecided voters in real-time. A potential danger of presenting such data is that it may prevent people from making independent evaluations. We report an experiment with 150 participants in which we manipulated the worm and superimposed it on a live broadcast of a UK election debate. The majority of viewers were unaware that the worm had been manipulated, and yet we were able to influence their perception of who won the debate, their choice of preferred prime minister, and their voting intentions. We argue that there is an urgent need to reconsider the simultaneous broadcast of average response data with televised election debates. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-18T00:17:34Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-0943042e23164ac5bd6c83e999a3a05c |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-18T00:17:34Z |
| publishDate | 2011-03-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj.art-0943042e23164ac5bd6c83e999a3a05c2022-12-21T21:27:26ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032011-03-0163e1815410.1371/journal.pone.0018154Social influence in televised election debates: a potential distortion of democracy.Colin J DavisJeffrey S BowersAmina MemonA recent innovation in televised election debates is a continuous response measure (commonly referred to as the "worm") that allows viewers to track the response of a sample of undecided voters in real-time. A potential danger of presenting such data is that it may prevent people from making independent evaluations. We report an experiment with 150 participants in which we manipulated the worm and superimposed it on a live broadcast of a UK election debate. The majority of viewers were unaware that the worm had been manipulated, and yet we were able to influence their perception of who won the debate, their choice of preferred prime minister, and their voting intentions. We argue that there is an urgent need to reconsider the simultaneous broadcast of average response data with televised election debates.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/21479191/pdf/?tool=EBI |
| spellingShingle | Colin J Davis Jeffrey S Bowers Amina Memon Social influence in televised election debates: a potential distortion of democracy. PLoS ONE |
| title | Social influence in televised election debates: a potential distortion of democracy. |
| title_full | Social influence in televised election debates: a potential distortion of democracy. |
| title_fullStr | Social influence in televised election debates: a potential distortion of democracy. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Social influence in televised election debates: a potential distortion of democracy. |
| title_short | Social influence in televised election debates: a potential distortion of democracy. |
| title_sort | social influence in televised election debates a potential distortion of democracy |
| url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/21479191/pdf/?tool=EBI |
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