4 ms·
Guys, these whitehouse.gov petitions are completely meaningless.
by blhack 15y ago
Guys, these whitehouse.gov petitions are completely meaningless.
- ndcrandall 15y agoI agree in a sense of actually changing something. It is somewhat useful in letting people not involved know what's going on by spreading the information around.
- mistercow 15y agoSigning a petition is a symbolic act that causes you to commit to yourself the idea "I am the sort of person who cares about this issue". Petitions are, at best, only secondarily for influencing the powers that be. They are primarily for influencing the people who sign them.
- developer9 15y agoI agree. Instead of a petition, we should contact them directly as we did with our senators. So, use this instead: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comme...
- jamesbritt 15y agoSigning a petition is a symbolic act that causes you to commit to yourself the idea "I am the sort of person who cares about this issue". Or let you believe you've actually done something, so now you can direct your attention to other things. Is there any evidence to show that signing a petition makes a person more inclined to take additional practical action?
- mistercow 15y ago>Is there any evidence to show that signing a petition makes a person more inclined to take additional practical action? Yes, there is some evidence. In Chapter 3 of Influence: Science and Practice, Robert Cialdini discusses this kind of self-image effect, citing several studies including one in particular about petitions[1]. These kinds of "commitments" (even though they are not actually binding) really do affect our behavior, although the end results are not necessarily particularly issue-focused or predictable. One thing we can say though with some certainty: if you convince someone to sign their name to a petition that says "stop X", it will take significant mental effort for them to later decide that they actually support X. [1] http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/psp/4/2/195/ http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/psp/4/2/195/
- jamesbritt 15y agoThank you, quite interesting. There's a caveat, though (from http://faculty.babson.edu/krollag/org_site/soc_psych/freed_fras_foot.html http://faculty.babson.edu/krollag/org_site/soc_psych/freed_f...): Remember, these were innocuous requests from a non-profit group with relatively non-controversial goals. This technique may not produce the same results for more political or more controversial requests.
- mike_ivanov 15y agoNah, it's just another cargo cult.
- mistercow 15y agoWhat is? I'm struggling to see how the cargo cult concept applies here.
- jerrya 15y agoThey are potentially useful because, sadly, the President has made them meaningless, and so they can be used as markers in a timeline.
- jbooth 15y agoThey didn't exist before the current president, so it's logically impossible for him to have made them meaningless. Whatever miniscule approximately-zero meaning they have now is more than they had before they existed.
- lonnyk 15y agoThe petitions are not meaningless. They just are not doing what you want them to do. The point of these petitions is to get a response from someone in the administration who is familiar with the topic [1]. They have done this over and over again. In some instances, after reviewing the instances they have also changed policies [2]. [1] https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/how-why/frequently-asked-questions https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/how-why/frequently-a... 'What is the purpose of We the People?' [2] https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/response/were-listening-seriously https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/response/were-listen...
- shortformblog 15y agoConsidering an official whitehouse.gov petition led to the White House response that eventually turned the tide on SOPA the last time, actually that's not true. http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/01/14/obama-administration-responds-we-people-petitions-sopa-and-online-piracy http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/01/14/obama-administrati...