Abstract
We demonstrate the centrality of high quality personal interactions for successfully overcoming the collective action problem of voter mobilization, and highlight the need for attention to treatment quality before making substantive inferences from field experiments. We exploit natural variation in the quality of voter mobilization phone calls across call centers to examine how call quality affects voter mobilization in a large-scale field experiment conducted during the 2010 Election. High quality calls (from call centers specializing in calling related to politics) produced significant increases in turnout. In contrast, low quality calls (from multi-purpose commercial call centers) failed to increase turnout. Furthermore, we offer caution about using higher contact rates as an indication of delivery quality. Our treatment conditions with higher contact rates had no impact on turnout, suggesting an unfavorable trade-off between quantity of contacts and call quality.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1-20 |
| Number of pages | 20 |
| Journal | Political Behavior |
| DOIs | |
| State | Accepted/In press - 2013 |
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Keywords
- Causal inference
- Experimental design
- Field experiment
- House effects
- Mobilization calls
- Voter mobilization
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Sociology and Political Science
Cite this
The Role of Call Quality in Voter Mobilization : Implications for Electoral Outcomes and Experimental Design. / Mann, Christopher B.; Klofstad, Casey A.
In: Political Behavior, 2013, p. 1-20.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - The Role of Call Quality in Voter Mobilization
T2 - Implications for Electoral Outcomes and Experimental Design
AU - Mann, Christopher B.
AU - Klofstad, Casey A
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - We demonstrate the centrality of high quality personal interactions for successfully overcoming the collective action problem of voter mobilization, and highlight the need for attention to treatment quality before making substantive inferences from field experiments. We exploit natural variation in the quality of voter mobilization phone calls across call centers to examine how call quality affects voter mobilization in a large-scale field experiment conducted during the 2010 Election. High quality calls (from call centers specializing in calling related to politics) produced significant increases in turnout. In contrast, low quality calls (from multi-purpose commercial call centers) failed to increase turnout. Furthermore, we offer caution about using higher contact rates as an indication of delivery quality. Our treatment conditions with higher contact rates had no impact on turnout, suggesting an unfavorable trade-off between quantity of contacts and call quality.
AB - We demonstrate the centrality of high quality personal interactions for successfully overcoming the collective action problem of voter mobilization, and highlight the need for attention to treatment quality before making substantive inferences from field experiments. We exploit natural variation in the quality of voter mobilization phone calls across call centers to examine how call quality affects voter mobilization in a large-scale field experiment conducted during the 2010 Election. High quality calls (from call centers specializing in calling related to politics) produced significant increases in turnout. In contrast, low quality calls (from multi-purpose commercial call centers) failed to increase turnout. Furthermore, we offer caution about using higher contact rates as an indication of delivery quality. Our treatment conditions with higher contact rates had no impact on turnout, suggesting an unfavorable trade-off between quantity of contacts and call quality.
KW - Causal inference
KW - Experimental design
KW - Field experiment
KW - House effects
KW - Mobilization calls
KW - Voter mobilization
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84891787339&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84891787339&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s11109-013-9264-y
DO - 10.1007/s11109-013-9264-y
M3 - Article
SP - 1
EP - 20
JO - Political Behavior
JF - Political Behavior
SN - 0190-9320
ER -