Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Can audience response to speeches predict election results?



Psychologists at the University of York have analysed the speeches that Barack Obama and Mitt Romney gave in the swing states during the last American Presidential campaign.

A report of their findings on the British Psychological Society's Research Digest blog says, not surprisingly, that they found that Obama was the more effective speaker, winning enthusiastic responses from his audience more frequently.

That report goes on to say:
Can audience responses be used to predict the subsequent success of the candidates? ... Bull and Miskinis correlated the responses in each swing state with the vote received there, and found this to be statistically significant ... Obama provoked better reactions and more vote in several states including Wisconsin and Iowa, Romney more in North Carolina.

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