Eps 1369: How deep canvassing is changing politics

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Madison Walker

Madison Walker

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Closer to home, People in Action has been running in-depth ads to interact with voters in North Carolina on issues such as universal health care, undocumented immigration, and persuading candidates. Instead of lecturing people or bombarding them with messages about what they think about an issue, organizers and volunteers engage voters in a strategy called deep-level canvassing in which they use listening and telling as a way to connect personal experience and shared values.
Several studies have shown that in-depth advertising campaigns involve developing non-judgmental and empathetic connections with voters through 10- to 15-minute authentic conversations, and that this leads to lasting changes in people's attitudes to issues such as immigration and transgender rights. A new peer-reviewed study by academics David Broockman and Josh Kalla published in the American Political Science Review echoes these findings, suggesting that it is the focus on nonjudgmental attitudes that helps establish real connections between candidates and the people to whom they talk to. Research has shown that deep courtship involving empathy and conversation with the goal of countering prejudice and shifting beliefs can have a profound effect when done in person or over the phone, on the hearts and minds of potential voters.
The campaign showed that five per cent of voters had reduced measurable prejudice against undocumented immigrants through intensive advertising campaigns. An analysis of recent efforts by People for Action earlier this year concluded that its intensive advertising campaigns were an estimated 10.2 times more effective in-person than the president's average persuasion program using traditional, shorter ad campaigns. Deep canvassing has a unique appeal to really change someone, as it can be difficult to change one's mind, but a 2016 study showed that a conversation can help break down prejudice in a month, which is a huge thing.
Instead of telling people how to vote, recruiters engage in face-to-face conversations with voters. These conversations often begin with a recruiter asking voters for their views on issues like abortion, immigration, and LGBTQ rights. For example, the LGBT Center for Saves in Los Angeles had set itself the goal of eliminating prejudice against transgender people, so they shared their own experiences of discrimination and asked voters to share the times they feel judged by differences.
Anat Shenker Osorio, a progressive consultant who works to combine political strategy with psychological research, says deep courtship seems to work because it seeks to reach voters in ways that do not include television advertising and traditional door-knocking. Deep courting, especially for first-time voters, is a two-way conversation about the experience of trying to engage with voters. The act of more intensive advertising helps people realise that their beliefs and actions need not go hand in hand, forcing them to change, and that voters can decide for themselves.
Studies by researchers David Broockman at UC Berkeley and Josh Kalla at Yale University have shown that deep wooing is more effective in changing voter attitudes than traditional political outreach methods such as advertising or short-term wooing of transactions. A national network of grassroots organizations is using the new form of canvassing to talk as much as possible about voters, including in rural areas. They say it can help change the preference of voters - including those living in those areas - and generate more support for progressive candidates.
The experiment was led by People for Action, a liberal nonprofit focusing on mobilizing rural and low-income Americans, using a tactic called Deep Canvassing, a form of grassroots organizing that focuses more on listening and finding human connections than traditional door-to-door ticking through political campaigns. In 2016 Broockman and Kalla demonstrated that a 10-minute intensive canvass conversation could reduce transgender prejudice by three months . With the support of People For Action, there is an intensive campaign for votes in the USA before the 2020 presidential elections.
In another immigration experiment, Broockman and Kalla found that 78 percent of people who came to the door after a recruiter rang ended up staying for the whole conversation.
In-depth advertising campaigns, especially in the context of the COVID 19 Pandemic, involve 10 to 15 minutes of honest, two-way telephone conversations between advertisers and potential voters to reflect on the events that shape what is at stake for them. Deep canvassing is a two-page conversation between a canvasser and a voter in which voters are asked to share their personal experiences on the issues discussed. At the end of the conversation the recruiter encourages the voter to think of a time when they were discriminated against, often in connection with the plight of transgender people.
If you intend to make a lasting impression on voters, and you don't mind spending more time with people, deep campaigning can do wonders for your campaign. George Goehl is the director of People for Action, an organization of working class political activists, in an article about voter engagement strategies called "Deep Canvassing". Its executive director, he says, is part of a long-term strategy to engage rural voters.
Recently, a Sunday spent in Croydon, Pennsylvania, a working-class town on Neshaminy Creek in the southeastern corner of the state, to learn about the practice of deep courtship, a promising way to persuade voters to change their mind on politics. During a study conducted by political science professors David Broockman and Josh Kalla in partnership with Peoples Action, a liberal nonprofit dedicated to mobilizing rural and low-income Americans, a summer of telephone advertising resulted in an average swing of 31 points in favor of former vice president Joe Biden. The study also found that those who changed voters' minds to include undocumented immigrants and the expansion of social safety nets like Medicaid had eight new supporters, including those voters, in 100 intense conversations.