Researchers from Yale University conducted a randomized evaluation to examine the effects of political party identification on political attitudes and opinions. Participants in the study who received a printed letter indicating that they must register with a political party to vote in an upcoming election were more likely to affiliate with a party, change their views on political issues, and change their voting behavior.

Researchers measured the impact of receiving phone calls on registered voters’ likelihood of voting in general elections in the United States. The study found that non-partisan, get-out-the-vote (GOTV) phone calls had no effect on voter turnout.

By subjecting the papers to an electronic anti-plagiarism program, researchers found that the tutorial significantly reduced the likelihood of plagiarism, particularly among students with lower college entrance scores who had the highest rates of plagiarism. A follow-up survey suggests that the intervention reduced plagiarism by increasing student knowledge rather than by increasing the perceived probabilities of detection and punishment.

Early in the 2006 campaign for governor of Texas, the launch date and volume of television advertisements as well as the launch date of radio advertisements for the incumbent candidate were randomly assigned across media markets to evaluate the impact of the ads on public opinion. Results indicate that the televised ads had strong but short-lived effects on voting preferences.

To test the impact of an automated phone call from a credible source on voters’ preferences and behavior, researchers delivered the message to random voters in two concurrent randomized evaluations. The call did not increase voter turnout or change voter preferences, suggesting that automated phone calls may not be a cost-effective strategy for communicating with and mobilizing constituents.

Researchers used two randomized evaluations, an online survey and a field experiment, to test how personality traits affect responses to persuasive appeals to vote. They found that individuals with high levels of openness were most responsive to a range of appeals.

Researchers evaluated whether disclosure of past voting participation had a stronger impact on turnout when it reminded voters of instances in which they previously voted or of instances in which they failed to vote. The results suggest that mailings disclosing past voting behavior had strong positive effects on voter turnout, and that these effects were stronger when voters were told of a recent election in which they failed to vote.

Helping families with young children living in high-poverty housing projects to move to lower-poverty neighborhoods improves the later-life outcomes for the children and may reduce the intergenerational persistence of poverty.

Researchers measured the effect of class size, teacher quality, and classroom quality on earnings and other future outcomes for children participating in the Student/Teacher Achievement Ratio (STAR) project in Tennessee. The study found that smaller class sizes raised college attendance, more experienced teachers increased future earnings of their students, and higher quality classrooms improved both college attendance and future earnings. Researchers found that the positive effects of early childhood education on test scores diminish over time, but positive effects on non-cognitive outcomes persist through adulthood.

Researchers examined the effects of personal canvassing, phone calls, and direct mail on voter turnout shortly before the 1998 general election in the US city of New Haven. Personal canvassing had a far greater influence on voter participation than three pieces of professionally crafted mail delivered within two weeks of Election Day. Calls from professional phone banks were even less effective than direct mail at increasing voter turnout.