The Power of Persuasion: How Micro-targeted Campaigning Affects Voting Behavior

It’s campaign season! With the 2022 elections coming up in May, it’s now more important than ever to be vigilant and discerning on who we vote for. We can’t deny that these elections will determine how our country will cope with the COVID-19 pandemic for the following years. Alzel Laguardia, a writer for Rappler, states that Filipinos have been questioning the Duterte administration’s pandemic response. For instance, the fact that Filipinos began ‘community pantries’ in order to help those who don’t have the resources to survive the pandemic. It shows that because the government would not cater to their needs, the citizens took matters into their own hands (Laguardia, 2021).

The current government officials must be held accountable for ineffectiveness of their prevention methods, calling us to choose the right leaders. We elect these officials to lead our country, which means we believe they will design the right policies and take proper measures to ensure the well-being of our country. If we elect officials who implement laws that hinder our freedom or limit our rights, we’ll suffer the consequences of electing the wrong person. Laguardia quoted COMELEC spokesman James Jimenez, who said that “As the country moves closer to the elections, the more idealized the presentation of aspiring candidates will be. To become an informed vote, one must look at the actions of potential candidates as early as possible to better know them.” (2021).

With honest and hardworking government officials, our country would thrive. For the benefit of the Filipino people, we must elect competent and qualified candidates to public office. Campaign teams are working hard to persuade voters that their candidate is the best chance this country has to address the pressing issues. However, the campaigning season here in the Philippines is quite long. The Presidential and Vice-Presidential campaigning period alone lasts a total of 90 days, according to the 1985 Omnibus Election Code of the Philippines. In the span of this 90-day period, campaign teams will deploy tactics that would appeal to the public.

Election campaigns are a major production. Historically, we often saw candidates create their own jingles and blast the song repeatedly through the streets. They held charity events and attended as many speaking engagements as possible to perform speeches that would convince people to vote for them. However, the pandemic has forced us to change how we interact with one another as a society. The disruption has posed a new challenge for campaign teams and they were pushed to rethink their strategies. Some have resorted to internet campaigning techniques as a result. One method that is gaining popularity is called "micro-targeted campaigning."

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The power of micro-targeted campaigning

It sounds intimidating, but micro-targeted campaigning is somewhat straightforward when broken down into simple terms. Jens Koed Madsen, a senior research assistant at the University of Oxford, wrote an entire book on this campaigning strategy entitled The Psychology of Micro-Targeted Election Campaigns. Here, he defines micro-targeted campaigning as “The design of messages” that persuade a target audience to think a certain way. He also mentions that “By collecting relevant data about each voter, campaigners can build models that segment the electorate into increasingly specific and sophisticated categories.” (2019). In addition, an article by Rappler in 2021 defined micro-targeted campaigning as “online targeted advertising that analyzes personal data to influence a specific audience.”

How do these campaigns collect personal data? Data can be acquired in many different ways, according to Madsen (2019):

1. Purchasing. Campaigns could buy data from supermarkets and even from some governments if they thought it would help. However, the most informative data one could get would be from social media companies, and they would probably be willing to sell it. Selling personal data to marketing and advertising companies is one of the many ways that social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram make a profit.
2. Algorithms. The words people use on social media are frequently linked to their political beliefs. Some may even predict who is conservative based on whether they will engage in religious conversations or not. Algorithms can also look at what sources an individual deems credible, which campaigns can utilize to push their agenda.
3. Crowdsourcing platforms. These platforms are used to gather insights, and micro-targeted campaigning allows them to gather data by having the participants complete surveys. Data can come from predictions or beliefs that can help the campaign choose the best way to persuade people.
4. Canvassing. This method is simply collecting survey data through face-to-face interaction. Volunteers would conduct surveys with the targeted audience and gather the data from their interactions.

Once campaigners have collected the necessary data, they categorize users into groups. By grouping them, the campaigners can determine how to persuade each group into whatever direction they desire.

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The art of persuasion

According to Madsen, micro-targeted campaigning is patterned by Bayesian models, which are statistical models that demonstrate how people update their beliefs based on new evidence. Perceiving new evidence may or may not change a person’s beliefs, but depending on the strength of the new evidence, the response will vary. These models serve as the framework for micro-targeted campaigning, providing campaigners a “formal template to describe and predict why a message might persuade some, but not others.” (Madsen, 2019).

The force behind micro-targeted campaigning is the art of persuasion. New evidence is not enough to convince a group of people; the speaker must present the evidence in a way that appeals to the target audience. "If the persuader has relevant knowledge of the target audience," writes Madsen (2019), "they can tailor their choice of references, examples, and the main thrust of their argumentation to issues that resonate with that audience." In simple terms, the manner in which the persuader speaks to their audience can affect voting behavior.

However, this is all under the impression that the speaker is deemed credible. For example, if a politician parades around a city giving detailed speeches about the city's difficulties, citizens may notice that the politician is merely acting to get their support. Persuasion is only effective if done at the right place, at the right time, in the right amount. Too much of anything will seem fake or phony.

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The good and the bad (but mostly the bad)

Micro-targeted campaigning has both benefits and downsides. Madsen (2019) argues that collecting personal data can provide an in-depth understanding of the causes of discrimination and how to counter it, as well as means to increase public health or reduce domestic violence. He also believes that micro-targeted campaigning is only effective if the models and data used are accurate and that when done correctly, it may be tremendously advantageous to candidates.

However, many would argue that the consequences greatly outweigh the benefits. Micro-targeted campaigning can be extremely harmful when used to manipulate the target audience, provide unfair political advantages (such as causing scandals for the opposing candidate), or spread fake news. There are a lot of Filipinos who have access to the internet and social media websites like Facebook or YouTube, which makes it very easy for people to spread disinformation.

Another downside of this strategy is the fact that micro-targeted campaigning is a new but unregulated method. As mentioned in the previous paragraphs, social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have sold the personal data of their users to advertising companies (Madsen, 2019). The monetization of personal information is particularly harmful to the individual, not just because political campaigns exploit it for their gain, but also because that information could be sold to persons with criminal intentions.

Finally, the issue of micro-targeted campaigning is often associated with the Cambridge Analytica scandal back in 2018. During the 2016 presidential elections in the United States, the political data-analysis firm harvested the personal information of over 87 million Facebook users. The data was used by the firm to build psychological profiles on each user, creating targeted ads to encourage these individuals to vote for Donald Trump. The mere fact of collecting personal data from individuals poses a privacy issue. Of course, the goal of micro-targeting is to persuade a group of people who already share similar political beliefs, and it's simply a means to motivate them. However, pushing political agendas through online advertisements suggests that campaigns will say anything to persuade an individual.

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Vote wisely

"There are apparent drawbacks as well as benefits," said Dr. Tom Dobber, a political communication expert at the University of Amsterdam. He said that giving relevant information to people who aren't doing anything could "energize" them. Dobber added that "microtargeting can help you get more people to vote. These are all positive things. However, there is a definite potential for manipulation as well as the spread of misinformation. I guess it can be used for good when actors behave in good faith, but microtargeting can just as easily be damaging to society when employed in bad faith."

Here in the Philippines, COMELEC has become aware of these dangers. Since most of the country is online, micro-targeted campaigning is more likely to happen. In 2021, Jimenez stated that they are taking measures to prohibit micro-targeted campaigning.

A bad candidate will always be a bad candidate, regardless of the strategy used in their campaign. In this time of need, we must do our research and choose the most suitable individual to lead our country. Of course, with all of the political campaigns on social media and advertisements designed to change our minds, making a decision might be difficult. As voters, we must conduct research, read credible sources, and form our own opinions. We should be cautious about what we read on the internet, especially now, when fake news about a candidate can easily spread.

Let’s say that we are currently being micro-targeted–we still have the power to dictate the direction of the upcoming elections! We are the ones who have the ability to vote, and we have control over who we want to lead us. We can do this by doing research, educating others, or volunteering for the candidate we choose. It's crucial to remember that we must vote for a candidate who is looking out for our best interests. It is best to reassess our choices if you suspect a candidate's motives are not in the best interests of our country.

SOURCES:

De Leon, D. (2021). Comelec eyes action vs online microtargeting of voters for 2022 polls. Retrieved from https://www.rappler.com/nation/elections/comelec-eyes-action-microtargeting-voter-online-2022-polls/

Hamilton, I.A. (2020). Easily overblown, little-understood, and dangerous: Why we need to understand political microtargeting. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/microtargeting-efficacy-overblown-still-dangerous-2020-10

Laguardia, A. (2021). PH lessons from pandemic further highlight importance of voting in 2022 elections. Retrieved from https://www.rappler.com/nation/elections/voters-insights-2022-elections-radyo-comelec/

Ma, A. & Gilbert, B. (2018). Facebook understood how dangerous the Trump-linked data firm Cambridge Analytica could be much earlier than it previously said. Here's everything that's happened up until now. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/cambridge-analytica-a-guide-to-the-trump-linked-data-firm-that-harvested-50-million-facebook-profiles-2018-3

Madsen, J.K. (2019). The psychology of micro-targeted election campaigns. Springer Nature Switzerland AG. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-22145-4

Quitzon, J. (2021). Social media misinformation and the 2022 Philippine elections. Retrieved from https://thediplomat.com/2021/11/social-media-misinformation-and-the-2022-philippine-elections/

Senate Electoral Tribunal. (2022). Batas Pambansa Bilang 881. Retrieved from https://www.set.gov.ph/resources/election-law/batas-pambansa-bilang881/#:~:text=The%20period%20of%20campaign%20shall,Barangay%20Election%20%E2%80%93%2015%20days.