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Manipulative tactics are the norm in political emails: Evidence from 100K emails [pdf]
- cblconfederate 6y agoDemocracy is a popularity contest. Why is this surprising?
- SpicyLemonZest 6y agoFast food is a popularity contest, with every store having a direct financial interest in driving and retaining customer loyalty. But I've never gotten an email from In n Out saying they need to sell 549 more burgers before midnight to beat Five Guys in quarterly sales rankings.
- swiley 6y agoLots of them will give you free food in return for installing their smart phone app though. Anyone offering me free anything (but especially food) to install software immediately goes on my creepy list.
- sellyme 6y agoEh, pretty much every other app on smartphones these days is harvesting my metadata already. I might as well get a cheeseburger out of it. I'm fine with a fast food place giving me food in exchange for me giving them anonymised data on how to sell more food. That seems like a pretty equitable deal to me. The problem comes when shadier companies start, for example, keylogging your device and sending all of that to a foreign government.
- DaiPlusPlus 6y ago> But I've never gotten an email from In n Out saying they need to sell 549 more burgers before midnight to beat Five Guys in quarterly sales rankings. I'm pretty sure their staff do, though.
- jojobas 6y agoWould you care if In n Out beats Five Guys? Would you care who wins your mayoral election?
- BeetleB 6y ago> Fast food is a popularity contest, with every store having a direct financial interest in driving and retaining customer loyalty. Yes. > But I've never gotten an email from In n Out saying they need to sell 549 more burgers before midnight to beat Five Guys in quarterly sales rankings. You didn't get such an email because it wouldn't retain your loyalty. If it did, you would get those emails. People generally don't spend money so that one brand can beat another. They spend money to be part of the brand, or to consume it. However, they do spend money to have their guy beat the other guy.
- learnstats2 6y agoIt doesn't strike me that these e-mails are making anyone popular?
- a_imho 6y agoVoting is a popularity contest, electing representatives via sortition is perfectly valid and imo more closer to the idea of democracy.
- chillacy 6y agoThe same growth hacking techniques that make for annoying landing pages with huge CTA buttons and fake countdown timers has made it to political fundraising. I had definitely noticed that the political emails I've been getting (my email has probably been sold and resold countless times).
- double0jimb0 6y agoYou have it backwards. Political ad creatives needed something to do outside election cycles.
- AnimalMuppet 6y agoManipulative tactics are the norm in political mailings, too. They just take different forms. Maybe even one could say that manipulative tactics are the norm in politics.
- gameswithgo 6y agoand in business.
- dstick 6y agoGiven the nature of the format, what would be a tactic you would consider... unmanipulative, yet could still be effective?
- AnimalMuppet 6y agoEffective? Or at least as effective as manipulative techniques? Either way, I can't answer that. I'm not an advertising/mass communication/PR person. All I can tell you is what works and doesn't work for me, and manipulation really rubs me the wrong way. But then, I'm probably not the typical voter. Or, more cynically, manipulation rubs me the wrong way when I detect it. What they may be doing is doing manipulation that the average voter doesn't detect strongly.
- BitwiseFool 6y agoI'm shocked, shocked that campaign emails would be so biased, partisan, and maniuplative! Shocked!
- mullingitover 6y agoIt's worth noting that we don't even have a Federal Election Commission during this ongoing election[1]. [1] https://www.rollcall.com/2020/06/26/fec-set-to-lose-its-quorum-again/ https://www.rollcall.com/2020/06/26/fec-set-to-lose-its-quor...
- tehjoker 6y agoWhy wouldn't they be? Neither party offers anything of economic value to anyone that isn't rich so the only way they'll get people to click is a bag of tricks.
- vkou 6y agoJust the other day, I was reading through the platform of Craig Keller (Rep-D7) in my wife's copy of the official Washington voters' guide. I've learned that apparently, H1B visa-holders don't pay any social security taxes. This is news to both me, and the IRS, since I've payed tens of thousands of dollars in social security taxes over the years of being on an H1B. This raises an obvious question - should I invoice the candidate making this claim, his donors, his voters, or his party leadership, for a return of that money?
- Pfhreak 6y agoThe R governor candidate in Washington has said that Democracy is the gateway to socialism, and that socialism is the gateway to communism, so we should all be wary of democracy. It's wild right now.
- vkou 6y agoIt seems that the Republican party decided that it has no hope of contesting the gubernatorial seat, which was reflected in their primaries - a race among a lineup of absolute clowns, among whom Culp placed first. For folks who don't live in Washington - his official blurb is that he has no platform, and his qualifications consist of owning a construction company and being married for 43 years. No elected experience, no other professional experience, no education, no background in community service. [1] This state of affairs is, of course, bad for democracy for two reasons. For one, the opposition candidate is completely unqualified (And heaven forbid if he actually wins.) For another, when the opposition is so incapable, the bar of competence for the incumbent can't be lower. [1] I wish I was kidding, but that is what I see in my voter guide. The folks who are running unopposed for their seats have more to say about themselves than he does.
- bleepblorp 6y agoThis isn't surprising. Reformed conservative thinker David Frum warned about this several years ago, with his most notable quote being: "If conservatives become convinced that they can not win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. The will reject democracy."[0] Conservative opposition to democracy has already has wide, deep, roots and extends from kook candidates in blue states up to the Senate (where McConnell described attempts to increase voter turnout as a Democratic 'power grab'[1]) and the Trump circle, which has identified reducing voter turnout by disrupting absentee voting as a critical electoral strategy[2]. This problem isn't going to get any better. [0] https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/56364271-trumpocracy-the-corruption-of-the-american-republic https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/56364271-trumpocracy-t... [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/31/us/politics/election-day-holiday-mcconnell.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/31/us/politics/election-day-... [2] https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-campaign-2020-voter-suppression-consent-decree-1028988/ https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trum...
- gowld 6y agoThe point of this isn't to reveal a deep secret; it's to provide quantified evidence. So there's no need to post comments of mock shock.
- jfrankamp 6y agoAgree, this report isn't designed to shock readers, of course (multiple people posting sarcastic/non shock) already expected it. Its almost as if it had to be written to shock people on this thread in order to be accepted, which brings us full circle. I enjoyed the report not because it shocked me but because it outlined its methodology, it showed clear examples, and it points to a growing trend. It makes me wonder where these things go next, it feels like squeezing a lemon. Sure if you get a hydraulic press you'll get a bit more out. Then you've destroyed the entire communication channel.
- humaniania 6y agoThank you. I think that it would be cool to see a word cloud for this data set.
- renewiltord 6y agoSome of these are good examples for use in your cold emails.
- dkdk8283 6y agoI’m getting an unprecedented level of political spam via text. It’s really, really annoying.
- 6gvONxR4sf7o 6y agoSame. Ironic that the same people who put laws like the federal do not call list together put those ideas aside when it’ll benefit them. These are the people who are supposed to be making our lives better, spamming us to the point that it’s changing my relationship with the social communication device in my pocket.
- asciident 6y agoEven more explicitly, they're selling/trading my personal identifiable data. Exactly the thing they accuse Facebook and Google of doing, except Google and Facebook don't actually do that but the politicians are literally sending my data to their friends! It's such a doublespeak.
- rhexs 6y agoMost every state sells or gives away the voter rolls. This has been a tremendously annoying issue for decades.
- asciident 6y agoI'm talking even more directly, politicians' campaigns collect behavior data about my online activity, predict my political beliefs, my demographics, etc. They trade/sell them to their PACs, who then send clickbaitey emails and text messages, and make spammy phone calls to manipulate me to donate or vote for them. So much worse than Facebook.
- cgriswald 6y agoIt’s worse. Uber decided to abuse notifications on my phone to urge me to support California Prop 22.
- largbae 6y agoCould you remove the word "political" and make the same headline assertion?
- lki876 6y agoAlso, water wet.