Psychologists proved their value to political campaigns with one fundraising trick

In the last decade, psychological advisors have gone from an oddity to standard feature of major political campaigns. Back in 2008, when Barack Obama turned to a group of behavioral scientists to help him win the United States presidential election, their worth was yet unproven. 

Little is known about the academic group, who were unpaid and rarely give interviews on their political work. But according to the New York Times, they included Princeton University’s Susan Fiske, University of Chicago’s Richard Thaler (who won the Nobel in 2017 for his work in behavioral economics), emeritus Arizona State University professor Robert Cialdini, and Michael Morris, a psychology and leadership professor at Columbia University. 

…

Based on this psychologicalphenomenon, the behavioral science team suggested Obama should fundraise by offering the chance for one donor to win dinner with the Obamas, according to Morris. With an email list in the millions, the odds of winning for any one person would be tiny, but most people would struggle to fully appreciate that. “As soon as you have mentally pictured having dinner with Obama, then the event is mentally accessible to you and you give it a likelihood that’s higher than its real probability,” Morris said in an email. There was no massive barrier to entry; a 2012 New Yorker article on one such Obama raffle reported the suggested donation was just $3. 

Read the whole story (subscription may be required): Quartz