Behavioral scientist “dream team” helped Obama’s campaign
This election season the Obama campaign won a reputation for drawing on the tools of social science. The book “The Victory Lab,” by Sasha Issenberg, and news reports have portrayed an operation that ran its own experiment and, among other efforts, consulted with the Analyst Institute, a Washington voter research group established in 2007 by union officials and their allies to help Democratic candidates.
Less well known is that the Obama campaign also had a panel of unpaid academic advisers. The group — which calls itself the “consortium of behavioral scientists,” or COBS — provided ideas on how to counter false rumors, like one that President Obama is a Muslim. It suggested how to characterize the Republican opponent, Mitt Romney, in advertisements. It also delivered research-based advice on how to mobilize voters.
“In the way it used research, this was a campaign like no other,” said Todd Rogers, a psychologist at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and a former director of the Analyst Institute. “It’s a big change for a culture that historically has relied on consultants, experts and gurulike intuition.”
When asked about the outside psychologists, the Obama campaign would neither confirm nor deny a relationship with them. “This campaign was built on the energy, enthusiasm and ingenuity of thousands of grass-roots supporters and our staff in the states and in Chicago,” said Adam Fetcher, a campaign spokesman.
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Built on negative campaign and not on one’s record
Kill your opponent
cmsinaz on November 14, 2012 at 8:03 AM
Free Stuff = food source
rats = voters
Oil Can on November 14, 2012 at 8:07 AM
So these unpaid academic lying experts, I wonder how many grants they get for their other work.
forest on November 14, 2012 at 8:07 AM
Politicians manipulating people to further their own power?
NNNoooooo…reeally?
Mimzey on November 14, 2012 at 8:09 AM
Isn’t this exactly what Woodrow Wilson did?
He tried to turn the country into a giant sociology experiment.
budfox on November 14, 2012 at 8:13 AM
THat is the first step towards the government sanctioning killing part of its own population.
tom daschle concerned on November 14, 2012 at 8:17 AM
So the dream team concluded that enough American voters were stupid enough to believe Romney is a bond villain, the president doesn’t need to present or explain his plan for the next 4 years, binders full of women, Romney/Ryan want to kick down your door and slap your birth control bill out of your hand etc. In other words too many Americans who vote are too stupid to keep our republic alive.
gwelf on November 14, 2012 at 8:21 AM
Did the dream team have any ideas about how to stop hemorrhaging 1 trillion in debt every year?
gwelf on November 14, 2012 at 8:22 AM
As a teacher, I see why we have what we have in America.
Every freshman class I get is more ignorant than the last.
I live in a conservative area of the country, SW ND.
But that is fast filling up with those of the mentality of the gimmee generations.
Social services have been encouraged to sign up more & more people for govt assistance & we are experiencing an influx of transients coming here for the bennies.
And it is taking a toll on the peace & discipline our small communities once had.
I think some of this is due to the oil boom. But not most of it.
Before the boom this was happening.
And the freeloaders coming here are spreading the word how friendly ND is & how much more bennies some of the counties give people & their families are showing up for bennies as well.
Technology & the interference of government in people’s lives have made them willingly ignorant & dependent.
I watch this dependency in nature & the consequences it has.
I have barn cats who are basically wild.
I feed my dogs dog food & the cats hang around. I need cats, but unfortunately after many generations of barn cats eating the free food, a growing number of them have become so dependent that they do not hunt.
There is now a largess on our ranch of free loading cats.
And they get sick & they die.
I usually let them die after a while. Sometimes I shoot them.
I have to. I already have 3 housecats I had to save from crappy mothers.
I;m done. Now they die.
And this is what will happen when the social experiment they’re trying to create collapses.
Badger40 on November 14, 2012 at 8:25 AM
51% of Americans wonder if they can get some free sh!t from the ________, if so , they want to vote for the _________.
VegasRick on November 14, 2012 at 8:28 AM
Carrots for the Obamabots and sticks for everyone else not hungry or beaten down enough to want the “free” carrots.
Campaign trategy shift after room of smart guys figured out people like carrots more than peas. For those getting the stick treatment?
I think I am losing it.
Fallon on November 14, 2012 at 8:37 AM
Wonder if those ads included subliminal messaging?
mrsmwp on November 14, 2012 at 8:41 AM
Reminds me of this:
COBS, and the Democrats they help, know exactly what they are doing…
Fallon on November 14, 2012 at 8:45 AM
So, politics is now about whose the best at manipulating the base?
We are so doomed.
Do we really need to go through the hardship we’re headed for in order to for the people develop character and learn the TRUE facts of life? Maybe. I wish we didn’t. It’ll be very painful. And there is no guarantee people will learn the right lesson. We may fall to a dictatorship.
I’ve always said we were more likely to become Venezuala than Denmark.
LilyBart on November 14, 2012 at 8:57 AM
Good analogy.
My wife is a sucker for house cats, but we need them to do a job around our farm. It has taken me a long time, but she is finally persuaded that a barn cat that lives a few years of adventure has a more full and rich life than the one that sleeps on the bed all day for 15 years.
All our cats are barn cats now, and we don’t feed them a thing.
moo on November 14, 2012 at 9:00 AM
I’ve always loved this analogy. I use it often in my biology classroom when discussing ecological principles. I often use humans in these scenarios.
My 3 housecats are healthier & will live a long time compared to the feral ones. But I make them go outside everyday. Even in crappy weather.
My orange one wants to be outside as much as possible. He only comes in for a bit to eat & then back outside. He actually hunts & I’ve seen him catch & eat birds & mice. I like him. He’s neutered, but is a great cat.
Then I have a big gray lazy SOB who does nothing & cries all the time to come in, even on beautiful days.
But even he realizes being outside is a good thing & has come to realize that by crying less.
But he’s lazy as he!! & won’t hunt.
Humans are just like all of the other animals.
And we have created such a large dependent class that they have become so aggressive that they lie cheat & steal to get what they want.
It’s why we have Obama.
Badger40 on November 14, 2012 at 9:21 AM
And it’s funny how some people call me cruel that I force my housecats outside for most of the day bcs they could get killed by coyotes & hawks & eagles.
I think it is more cruel to create a lazy fat a$$ dependent animals that is good for nothing but eating & $hitting.
That’s what a lot of our fellow humans have become.
And realities like hurricane Katrina, Sandy, etc. give us the hard lesson of nature.
Those dependent creatures have no skills to care for themselves.
They have become useless eaters.
And there comes a time in human history where the necessity of reality comes down hard on that group bcs they cannot be saved no matter how some may wish it or try.
Badger40 on November 14, 2012 at 9:24 AM
Good analogy … unfortunately.
VibrioCocci on November 14, 2012 at 9:34 AM
Look, they gathered up homeless people off the street and bussed them to polling places.
Did the GOP do that?
That is one technique of “vote harvesting.” That’s what they did.
dogsoldier on November 14, 2012 at 9:42 AM