In 2024, there will be over 60 national elections across the globe, the United States among them in November. Voting looks different around the world, but politics and sensitive topics are often among what people are voting for- whether they are voting for a seat or a ballot measure. Vote Forward has previously partnered with AnswerLab on pro-bono research covering topics like letter-writing strategies as well as obstacles and challenges in the voter registration process. But for this round of research, they wanted to take a broader approach and dive into the fundamental experiences of voters, from their value systems to political backgrounds and history.
We believe this research plays a critical role in understanding how people are currently talking about political issues and how, if at all, they have changed their perspectives over time.
We conducted 12 open-ended in-depth 60-minute interviews with swing voters in battleground states. As this was an exploratory and foundational study, participants did not engage with any stimuli or prototypes, focusing instead on an open conversation covering a range of topics and experiences. As politics can be a sensitive topic, it was highly important to reach the right participants. We looked to Recruit + Field, our recruiting partner, for help finding the right people across the US to talk to.
Before we kicked off sessions, we took a number of steps to prepare and set the study up for success. To begin, we leveraged academic desk research to help us write an effective discussion guide. Conducting this desk research allowed us to identify potential challenges and risks associated with researching sensitive topics and develop contingency plans to address them effectively should they arise.
As this study covered deeply personal and sensitive topics, we wanted to ensure our participants felt safe sharing with us. To create this sense of rapport and trust, we built in a longer-than-normal introduction. We introduced ourselves - our careers, our hobbies, parts of ourselves - to participants in order to make them feel comfortable and to establish rapport. Participants were also informed that the session would cover sensitive and potentially triggering content and they could opt-out at any time.
We also set out with a clear goal of prioritizing client and researcher safety. From the outset of this project, we prepared the client and ourselves for the potential challenges of conducting socio-political research, which include second hand trauma and compassion fatigue.
Through our research, we uncovered moving stories and perspectives of participants. We knew that talking openly about politics would be tough. What we didn’t anticipate was that participants would be so open to talking about life-changing experiences they had that changed their perspectives and value systems.
The insights in this study were multifaceted and rooted in sensitive issues and situations. To illustrate these complexities, we delivered a unique report based on vignettes as well as supporting video clips and quotes. Vignettes are used to highlight participant decisions, beliefs and/or attitudes based on life events to elicit knowledge and opinions.
“We've worked with AnswerLab on projects in the past and as always, have been extremely appreciative of the level of structure/clarity on the project. You are by far the easiest partners we collaborate with.”
- Vote Forward Client
Our team surfaced some unexpected, fascinating findings that surprised the client team. The topline takeaways were:
We cited our academic desk research in the report to help give the findings and recommendations increased credibility and actionability. The client was pleased with how much rich data was available for them to dig into, providing findings they could go back to again and again in the coming year as a foundational grounding.
AnswerLab extends special thanks to our partner, Recruit + Field, for donating its services to this project.
The team at Recruit and Field was pleased to source the research participants for this initiative. We appreciate the opportunity to contribute to this incredibly important piece of research. - Josh Dyszel, CEO, Recruit and Field Inc