Engineering Election Debates With Subtle Cues

smolloy writes "A recent innovation in televised election debates is a continuous response measure (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. Researchers from Royal Holloway, University of London, and the University of Bristol, report an experiment with 150 participants in which they 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 the researchers were able to influence their perception of who won the debate, their choice of preferred prime minister, and their voting intentions."

Re:Reasonable Choices.

[ewe2]

In every debate using the worm here (Oz), at least one media organization always accuses the others of manipulating theirs, regardless of the result. So if you weren't already influenced then you had to ignore the deliberate media muddling of the issues. On top of the normal deliberate media muddling of course. But it doesn't stop commentators twittering them as a spectator sport anyway. This may be why we had a record 1.6% deliberate donkey vote in our last federal election.

Re:Likewise televised exit polls

[Seumas]

If you're two hours away from voting and you haven't make up your mind, you should be kicked in the fucking head with a steel toed boot.

Re:Likewise televised exit polls

[paper tape]

If there are only two choices, I don't disagree - but if there are three or more choices, and everyone is telling you the one you really want to vote for doesn't have a chance, then the logical thing to do is pick the least bad of the remainder. It is exactly that sort of manipulation that has given us more of the same, election after election.