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How Obama Used the Science of Change
“Barack Obama’s deputy field director Mike Moffo passed along guidelines and a sample script from the Consortium of Behavioral Scientists, a secret advisory group of 29 of the nation’s leading behaviorists.
The key guideline was a simple message: “A Record Turnout Is Expected.” That’s because studies by psychologist Robert Cialdini and other group members had found that the most powerful motivator for hotel guests to reuse towels, national-park visitors to stay on marked trails and citizens to vote is the suggestion that everyone is doing it. ‘People want to do what they think others will do,’ says Cialdini, author of the best seller Influence. ‘The Obama campaign really got that.’”