3 Things to Remember About Attention Spans
Attention span is an often under-looked aspect of research, yet its effects permeate everything we do. People are constantly bombarded by new information and their attention is frequently sought in the wrong ways. With that in mind, here are 3 things to remember about attention spans. 1) People are lazy. Most of us will take [...]
2011: Less Change Than They Thought
Year’s end is usually a time for introspection. At the end of every year my wife and I, as do many people, review where we thought we’d be at the beginning of the year and compare it to what actually happened. It might be a useful task to apply the same introspection to a very [...]
‘Tis the Season (for lots of polling)
We’re now on the virtual eve of the Iowa caucuses and the busy season for the early contests in the Presidential nominating process in 2012. You’ll be seeing a lot of polls over the coming days and weeks and many will give you wildly different results. Just in the last week we’ve seen polls either [...]
What’s wrong in Appalachia (And what do we do about it?)
The early November statewide elections in Kentucky and West Virginia were something of a yawn compared to the excitement of 2009 where big Republican wins in Virginia and New Jersey presaged the 2010 wave that swept Republicans into a dominant position in the House and in states nationwide. In Kentucky, Republican nominee David Williams was [...]
In (some) defense of Doug Schoen
For those who missed it last week, Doug Schoen released a fascinating poll consisting of in-person interviews of n=200 Occupy Wall Street protesters. The topline report can be found here and is worth reading in its entirety. It provides a glimpse into some of the real lunatic fringe elements that are part of (but not [...]
Moneyball Politics?
John Sides had an interesting piece in the New York Times’ FiveThirtyEight blog earlier this month. The full piece is well worth a read for anyone serious about understanding the latest political science research on campaign advertising. Here are links to part one and part two. Sides is a widely published political scientist and the [...]
Study Reveals Nonprofit Leaders Optimistic About Hitting Fundraising Objectives In 2012
It appears that nonprofit leaders perceptions of successfully hitting fundraising objectives for 2012 are starting to change. Bucking the trend of pessimism in recent surveys, nonprofit leaders anticipate a rise in giving levels and demand for services heading into 2012. What’s more is that the report reveals even more positive news: an increase in anticipated staffing. Blakbaud’s [...]
Understanding the Science of Attention
One area of research that has always intrigued me is the limits on human cognition and reason. As communication consultants, it’s easy to convince ourselves that voters (or consumers) will “get” what we’re trying to say because we ourselves live our campaigns and their issues (or products) in such depth. But the research into human [...]
Polarization and Politics
Posted by Chris Wilson on Tuesday, January 31st, 2012 at 10:26 AM
Chris Cillizza and Aaron Blake over at The Fix posted an interesting analysis of Gallup data showing that opinions of Barack Obama are the most polarized by political party of any President at this point in his term in recent history. George W. Bush was second at this point in his presidency and also had [...]