Text Messages as Mobilization Tools: The Conditional Effect of Habitual Voting and Election Salience

Abstract

In their 2009 article published in the American Journal of Political Science, Dale and Strauss (DS) introduce the Noticeable Reminder Theory (NRT) of voter mobilization, which posits that mobilization efforts that are highly noticeable and salient to potential voters, even if impersonal, can be successful. In an innovative experimental design, DS show that text messages substantially boost turnout by levels comparable to personalized mobilization strategies, challenging previous field experimental research which argues that social connectedness is the key to increasing participation. This paper replicates DS's research design and extends it in two key ways. First, whereas the treatment in DS's experiment is a "warm" text message that was combined with some form of contact, we test NRT more cleanly by examining the effect of "cold" text messages that are completely devoid of auxiliary interaction. Second, because we have data on subjects' recent voting histories, we can test an implication of NRT that habitual voters should exhibit the largest treatment effects in lower-salience elections, whereas casual voters should exhibit the largest treatment effects in higher-salience elections. Via these two extensions, we find support for NRT.

Electoral Administration in Fledgling Democracies: Experimental Evidence from Kenya

“…Without localization, SMS reminders have no effect. This contrasts with work showing the positive effects of SMS across a range of outcomes, including voter turnout (e.g., Dale and Strauss 2009;Malhotra et al 2011;Marx, Pons, and Suri 2017), savings behavior (e.g., Karlan et al 2016), and adherence to antiretroviral therapy (Pop-Eleches et al 2011). However, our findings complement Bennion and Nickerson (2011), who find that SMS messaging increases voter registration in the United States, but only once an individual possesses a voter registration form.…”

Social Pressure on Social Media: Using Facebook Status Updates to Increase Voter Turnout

“…However, past voter turnout experiments suggest that voter mobilization efforts work differently on individuals based on their past participation records (Arceneaux & Nickerson, ; Dale & Strauss, ; Gerber & Rogers, ; Malhotra, Michelson, Rogers, & Valenzuela, ). These studies find statistically significant interactions between treatments and measures of past voter history.…”

The Unheavenly Chorus: Political Voices of Organized Interests on Social Media

“…A citizen's voice is expressed in an ever-changing environment, and in recent years many of these changes have involved new information technologies, such as social media. Citizens who once expressed their preferences to policymakers by writing letters or telephoning now also use email, blogs, Facebook, and Twitter (Bennion & Nickerson, 2011;Dale & Strauss, 2009;Davis, 2009;Malhotra, Michelson, Rogers, & Valenzuela, 2011;Osborn, McClurg, & Knoll, 2010). Since 2008, social media technology has continued to gain popularity, and its uses have multiplied.…”