JAMES FOWLER: “And one of the remarkable things that we found was that when we were comparing the people who received these messages to the people who received no messages, the people who saw the message without the faces of their friends actually voted at exactly the same rate as the people who saw no message at all. But the people who saw faces of their friends they actually voted more.”
The researchers say the results of the study show that the message directly influenced about sixty thousand extra people to go and vote. Even more importantly, says Professor Fowler, the friends of the people who saw the message also were influenced to vote. He says this led an additional two hundred eighty thousand people to take part in the elections. As a result, the message influenced a total of three hundred forty thousand people.
And, Professor Fowler says the experiment led to an even more interesting finding. It is that in the world of social networking, like in the real world, not all friends are equal.
JAMES FOWLER: “It wasn’t all of these online connections that matter. The average person on Facebook today has about one hundred fifty friends. And when we just looked at the close friends, those closest ten people on Facebook, we found that they were driving the whole effect. That all of the extra two hundred eighty thousand voters were coming from just ten out of your one hundred fifty friends.”
The researchers say the study suggests that voting is a social behavior. They say social networking may be the best way to get more people involved in the democratic process. And they think this in not only true in politics, but in other areas as well, including public health.
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