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Published online 23 June 2008 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2008.908
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Where you vote affects how you vote
The location of the polls could sway an election.
In November 2004, Christian Wheeler stood in line at a local church and waited to cast his ballot in the US presidential election, which pitted President George W. Bush against the democratic candidate, John Kerry.
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The finding isn't really all that surprising. Psychology experiments are showing time and time again that priming people activates thought processes associated with the priming. With that said, this is a brilliant application of the priming concept. I wonder if red states have a larger percentage of polling stations at churches? While I'm certain that is not the core reason why they are red, I'll bet it is amplifying the "redness".
Check out "Predictably Irrational" by Dan Ariely. OOdlesw of examples. Half of Asian American women view a questionnaire on women's issues (coed dorms...) and half of Asian American women answer questions relating to racial heritage. Then both groups take a math quiz. Guess who does better? Not the women's issue group, as females are supposed to bomb in math, but the Asian issue group, because Asians are supposed to excel. Or look at the experiment where a group of students wrote down the last 2 digits of their social security numbers just before they were asked how much they'd be willing to pay for a fancy bottle of wine. Guess what?... the last 2 digits of the students' social security numbers totally correlated with the amounts they'd be willing to spend. 00-19 would spend less than 02-39 who'd spend less than 40-59, who'd spend less than 60-79, who'd spend less than 80-99. Even when test subjects had a wheel of fortune spun in front of them and then were asked a civics question such as what proportion of African nations are UN members, the previous experience of looking at the results of the wheel of fortune spin determined the estimator's guess/estimation.
Check out "Predictably Irrational" by Dan Ariely. OOdlesw of examples. Half of Asian American women view a questionnaire on women's issues (coed dorms...) and half of Asian American women answer questions relating to racial heritage. Then both groups take a math quiz. Guess who does better? Not the women's issue group, as females are supposed to bomb in math, but the Asian issue group, because Asians are supposed to excel. Or look at the experiment where a group of students wrote down the last 2 digits of their social security numbers just before they were asked how much they'd be willing to pay for a fancy bottle of wine. Guess what?... the last 2 digits of the students' social security numbers totally correlated with the amounts they'd be willing to spend. 00-19 would spend less than 02-39 who'd spend less than 40-59, who'd spend less than 60-79, who'd spend less than 80-99. Even when test subjects had a wheel of fortune spun in front of them and then were asked a civics question such as what proportion of African nations are UN members, the previous experience of looking at the results of the wheel of fortune spin determined the estimator's guess/estimation.