Internet Search Engines May Be Influencing Elections

sciencehabit writes: Thomas Epstein, a research psychologist at the American Institute for Behavioral Research in Vista, California, has found that the higher a politician ranks on a page of Internet search results, the more likely you are to vote for them — 80% more likely in some cases. The story also suggests that the folks at Google may already be influencing elections. "Google's algorithm has been determining the outcome of close elections around the world," says Epstein. As predicted, subjects spent far more time reading Web pages near the top of the list (abstract). But what surprised researchers was the difference those rankings made: Biased search results increased the number of undecided voters choosing the favored candidate by 48% compared with a control group that saw an equal mix of both candidates throughout the list.

Comments

Re: No-information voters

[Rockoon]

If you ask people to choose among candidates they don't know, and then manipulate the information sources that are available to them, what in the world would make you think that their opinions should remain random?

Clearly the world of Democrats, who apparently wouldnt change their opinion about candidates they were originally uninformed about, regardless of what information you then gave them.