The first programme in the new series of All in the Mind interviewed the psychologist Professor Colin Davis - the interview runs from 2:00 to 7:30 in the recording.He talked about his research on TV election debates and the influence of the on screen 'worm' used to show what a group of undecided voters think about what's being said throughout the debate.
Colin Davis's paper Social influence in televised election debates: A potential distortion of democracy can be found online. Its conclusion:
In sum, our data indicate that viewers exposed to the worm are subject to social influence processes which later form the basis of their opinions. Thus, the responses of a small group of individuals could, via the worm, influence millions of voters. This possibility is not conducive to a healthy democracy, and therefore we argue that broadcasters should avoid the simultaneous presentation of average response data with televised election debates
As frightening was the revelation that the opinions of no more than 50 people contributed to the 2015 "worm". It was even worse in 2010; the figure was 12.
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