Politics
Sasha Issenberg's Victory Lab Twitter Chat
Newshour political editor Christina Bellantoni and Sasha Issenberg discuss how cutting-edge social science and analytics are reshaping the modern political campaign.
- Newshour political editor Christina Bellantoni hosted a live Twitter chat with Sasha Issenberg to discuss social science, political campaigns and analytics. Sasha answered all your questions about his new book, The Victory Lab, the Obama canvassing app, the voters that don't vote and more. Read our recap of the chat below.
Excited to be joining @cbellantoni of the @Newshour for a twitter chat. Send your questions now to #victorylab.
Confession: Tonight I'm alternating between reading "The Victory Lab" the book and #victorylab the Twitter interview. #nerdalert- We're so glad it's a Victory Lab night for Nathan!
- #victorylab A1 I covered 2008 day in, day out, and afterwards I realized the campaigns were doing a lot more than I had realized.
#victorylab Q2 from @alex_patton - wants to know about failed behavorial experiments.- #victorylab Q2 One of the problems with academic research is that people rarely publish after they test something that doesn't work.
- #victorylab A2 That's one of the reasons the Analyst Institute fascinates me: it's a place where researchers share failures and successes.
@victorylab Do you see down-ticket senate and congressional races using the same tactics you write about in the book? #victorylab- #victorylab A6 I see microtargeting scores/segments becoming a commodity: party committees generate generic ones and share with candidates.
- #victorylab A7 Much of the research informed by behavioral psych suggests that there are social benefits that makes people vote.
- #victorylab A7 Experiments are revealing people vote because they see their neighbors doing it and want to be seen as good citizens.
- #victorylab A7 By logic of costs/benefits there are plenty of reasons not to vote. It takes a lot of time and what do you get it of it?
You brought up RePurpose in recent blogpost. Are there any studies/data on gamification's affect on campaigns? #victorylab- #victorylab A9 Great question. I haven't seen any, but from what I know about the AFL-CIO I'm sure they're testing it all. (Read chap 6!)
@cbellantoni For #victorylab Have campaigns been able to integrate GIS and other such techniques to aid in microtargetting efforts?- #victorylab A11 Yes. Download the new Obama canvassing app and take a look: walklists are now maps.
#victorylab major #privacy issues with campaign applications.. No reason Obama’s need to show age on canvassing app.. See wapo..- #victorylab A16 I think the campaign's logic is that it's the same information a canvasser sees on clipboard. Why should app be different?
- This is so great to hear!
