Does the message matter? Examining the effect of targeted GOTV appeals

• In Event: Political Mobilization and Race

Abstract

A well-known finding in the GOTV field experiment literature is that the particular message used in mobilization campaigns does not seem to matter. Any message that encourages individuals to vote seems to have a similar effect in increasing the likelihood of engagement. This finding, however, runs counter to scholarship on persuasion, which suggests that individuals’ responsiveness to information should vary depending on both the content of a message and individual characteristics (Boudreau and MacKenzie 2014; Petty and Cacioppo 1986). It also runs counter to some studies of racial and ethnic minorities, which have found that targeted group appeals increase political engagement (e.g., Merolla and DeFrancesco Soto 2006; Michelson and Valenzuela 2016). Is it really the case that the message doesn’t matter, or might the effect of targeted appeals only resonate among some subsets of individuals? While we expect a standard get out the vote appeal to increase the likelihood of political engagement, we argue that racial and ethnic minorities will be even more inclined to participate when exposed to GOTV messages that highlight their group identity, especially among those who have stronger levels of group attachment. We also expect that informing racial and ethnic minorities of their under-representation in government will increase engagement, again for those with higher levels of group attachment, and among those who are less aware of their under-representation. We test these expectations using a two-wave panel survey fielded with a California-based sample through Survey Sampling International in the fall of 2018, shortly before the midterm elections. In wave one, we measured group attachment and awareness of levels of descriptive representation in government. In wave two, respondents were randomly assigned to receive a recycling message (control), a standard GOTV message, a California identity prime, a racial/ethnic group identity prime, or an under-representation prime. Our outcomes of interest include both self-reports of intended future participation as well as behavioral measures of engagement.

Authors

• Cheryl Boudreau, University of California, Davis

• Jennifer L. Merolla, University of California, Riverside

• Sono Shah, University of California Riverside