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Rediscovering the Civic and Achieving Better Outcomes in Public Policy

Grant reference: RES-177-25-0002

Occasional paper details

Title Social information and political participation on the internet : an experimental approach

Description This paper tests whether the amount of social information provided by the internet affects the decision to participate in politics. In a field experiment subjects could choose to sign petitions and donate money to support causes. Participants were randomised into treatment groups that received varying information about how many other people had participated and a control group receiving no social information. Results show that social information has a varying effect according to the numbers provided, strongest when there are more than a million other participants, supporting claims about critical mass and tipping points in political participation

Language English

Primary contributor

Author Helen Margetts

Additional contributors

Author Peter John

Author Stephane Reissfelder

Author Tobias Escher

Keywords

internet use; social; information use

Additional details

Is this item peer reviewed? No

Publisher Oxford University

Date of publication 01 January 2010

Number of pages 39

Place of publication Oxford