Researchers promoting Socialist Party in Survey

I'm not actually seeing any real difference between these researchers and what the Democratic party does every election...

The researchers looked at how many voters in the two sections they could persuade to vote for the Socialist Party, rather than the Republicans or Democrats. (The Socialist Party was chosen because it had no chance of winning the elections.)

What the researchers wanted to study was the contrast between rational and emotional appeals in political persuasion. The questionnaire's appeal was rational. It asked people who wanted a more egalitarian society to vote their views on policy matters. The letter's appeal was emotional: "We beg you in the name of those early memories and spring-time hopes to support the Socialist ticket in the coming elections!" it said. When the election was over, the Socialist vote increased by 35 percent over the previous election in the sections of the city that received the rational appeal. In the sections that received the emotional appeal, the Socialist vote increased by 50 percent. In Politics, Aim for the Heart, Not the Head - washingtonpost.com

Incredibly, this little experiment proves that existing campaign consultants are obviously worthless when compared to these researchers. Increasing the Socialist vote by 35% with a dry rational appeal for socialism is a downright miracle! Increasing it 50% -- Damn!

But then how many votes does it take to increase their vote 50%? Maybe ten, perhaps twelve more voters?

technorati tags:socialist-party, rational-v-emotional, idiotic-research