Short version: Use #FOMO (fear of missing out). Call them names (“you VOTER!”). Question their level of commitment. Promise to check up on them.

Hey, blog-reading friends. Your polling place is where all the cool kids are going to be on today. What’s your plan?

We’ll check back with you to see how you did.

FIND YOUR POLLING PLACE HERE

Kindness is contagious. We know that. Studies even prove it. A study published last July in the journal Emotion found that (I hope you’re sitting down) kindness is contagious at work, too, and it’s actually good for business.

The study is called “Everyday Prosociality in the Workplace: The Reinforcing Benefits of Giving, Getting, and Glimpsing.”

The upshot, when translated into common language: When people do nice things for other people at work, they’re happier; and the receivers start doing nice things for other people. “People who were “receivers” in the experiment paid it forward by doling out volumes more acts of kindness compared to the control group – 278% more!”

The work environment is more pleasant, people have a sense of ownership and belonging—and feeling appreciated can help make workers more successful. 

While the article doesn’t overtly cover other areas of interaction, like social media, we would like to think that kindness here (instead of the usual, anonymous vitriol) would also apply.

Read the full article by Richard Davidson, Neuroscientist.

*Mural Art by Lettering Designer Gina Lu

Have you noticed consistent trends in each month’s SVP report? You’ll want to read this month’s findings—there’s been a shift. 

Trump’s support among these swing voters has fallen

• • • The country is in chaos, and he’s not bringing order, he’s bringing more conflict.
    • They’re still not crazy about Biden. But they’re more willing to give him a chance.
    • How are they feeling in general? No surprise here—anxious, depressed, frustrated, fearful.

• • • They’re horrified about George Floyd’s death, and they’re supportive of the initial protests; but they think the protests have made their point. And protest violence is causing more division. They want it to stop.
    • They oppose defunding the police, and if Biden supports those efforts, he’ll lose many of their votes.
    • They want a national conversation about race, but they don’t want politicians to lead it.

“Our entire year has been taken away from us,” they said, with the prohibitions on weddings, funerals, and other public gatherings. Meanwhile, thousands are allowed to crowd together for protests. They want consistent pandemic gathering rules.

➜ Like we said, you’re going to want to read the whole thing

Have you noticed consistent trends in each month’s SVP report? You’ll want to read this month’s findings—there’s been a shift. 

Trump’s support among these swing voters has fallen

• • • The country is in chaos, and he’s not bringing order, he’s bringing more conflict.
    • They’re still not crazy about Biden. But they’re more willing to give him a chance.
    • How are they feeling in general? No surprise here—anxious, depressed, frustrated, fearful.

• • • They’re horrified about George Floyd’s death, and they’re supportive of the initial protests; but they think the protests have made their point. And protest violence is causing more division. They want it to stop.
    • They oppose defunding the police, and if Biden supports those efforts, he’ll lose many of their votes.
    • They want a national conversation about race, but they don’t want politicians to lead it.

“Our entire year has been taken away from us,” they said, with the prohibitions on weddings, funerals, and other public gatherings. Meanwhile, thousands are allowed to crowd together for protests. They want consistent pandemic gathering rules.

➜ Like we said, you’re going to want to read the whole thing

This thing that we’re experiencing, this global situation that unites us (separately, in our own homes) can be depressing, discouraging, scarring, life-destroying.

Precisely because it’s all those things, it’s a chance to show resilience. Or to grow some.

Over four years ago The New Yorker published Maria Konnikova’s piece, “How People Learn to Become Resilient.” She said, “If you are lucky enough to never experience any sort of adversity, we won’t know how resilient you are. It’s only when you’re faced with obstacles, stress, and other environmental threats that resilience, or the lack of it, emerges: Do you succumb or do you surmount?”

Lucky us!

A central element of resilience, Konnikova explains, is perception. If we conceptualize events as opportunities to learn and grow, we make ourselves less vulnerable.

I miss moderating dial test focus groups in person.

I can’t wait until it’s possible to travel to different locations and meet new people and hear not just their words but what they’re communicating with posture, movement, eye contact, and more.

In the meantime, Engagious is adapting: Qualitative research continues; focus groups can still happen, online. Dial tests, too. 

Covid-19 is forcing change everywhere:
https://www.economist.com/briefing/2020/04/11/the-changes-covid-19-is-forcing-on-to-business
https://www.engagious.com/top-4-best-practices-for-crisis-communications 

How are you adapting?

Photo from: https://www.architecturendesign.net/16-incredible-trees-that-have-adapted-to-their-surroundings/

Researchers at Ohio State found that when they gave people accurate statistics on a controversial issue, their memories adjusted the stats to match their own beliefs.

When they passed on these misremembered stats, the information grew more and more different as it was passed from person to person.

Like a game of telephone. But it’s not our hearing that warps the message, it’s our brain.

Memory isn’t a recording device; memory is more like a jigsaw puzzle with missing pieces, and pieces mixed in from other puzzles, according to the researchers.

https://www.dispatch.com/news/20191225/facts-are-misremembered-to-fit-personal-biases-ohio-state-study-finds

In Warren we met July 8 with twelve swing voters—nine who voted for Obama in 2012, and Trump in 2016; and three who voted for Romney in 2012, and Clinton in 2016.

We talked about the weather, and their families (we’re polite, after all). We asked them what they’re looking for in a leader; what issues are important to them; what they thought of President Trump and the Democrats in the hunt for his job. We showed them clips of the recent Democratic debates and asked them to rate with dials how much they liked what was said.

They’re concerned about immigration, health care prices, and retirement. They think the economy is growing, but they wouldn’t describe it as booming. We heard, again, that issues that are important to the 24-hour news stations (like impeachment) aren’t really important to them.

It’s all interesting—read the whole report here—and we’re grateful, as always, to the respondents for letting us take a look under the hood.

Some highlights:

On immigration: They want to take care of struggling Americans first. “I don’t want to be a jerk,” said one female Obama-Trump voter. “I feel terrible for those people, but there are people here in this country that are struggling to survive.”

On Trump: They said they don’t like it. But they like that he speaks his mind, and that he’s getting things done, or trying to. So they’re sticking with him. All nine Trump voters, and one Clinton voter, said they would vote for Trump over Clinton if there were a presidential election between them tomorrow.

On Democratic presidential hopefuls: The current crop doesn’t excite them. They couldn’t identify pictures of most of them; nor could they say much about them. They’d like for Oprah to run.

On the Democratic debate: They didn’t watch much of it. Of the parts we showed them they said the candidates’ positions are too liberal, and would make these voters more likely to vote for Trump.

On large corporations: They don’t believe large corporations care about America’s best interests. As one respondent said, “I’ve been in a lot of meetings where we decide where we put the plants—Korea, China, places like that—and America’s best interest was [never considered].”

On tariffs: They support them, especially on cars and car parts made in other countries. They want to protect American jobs and American wealth.

On climate change: It’s not a top five issue for a little more than half of them (“many other issues matter more to me”), but it wouldn’t cause them to vote against (or for) someone who is vocal about addressing it.

The directive for this settlement, the Northwest Ordinance, included three extraordinary conditions: freedom of religion, free universal education, and the prohibition of slavery. Extraordinary because at that time—before the Constitution was written and ratified—the first two were not guaranteed in all thirteen colonies, and slavery was legal (and practiced) in all thirteen colonies.

The Northwest Ordinance was largely driven by a Massachusetts minister, Manasseh Cutler. For Cutler, those three conditions were non-negotiable. Especially the prohibition of slavery.

How did Cutler manage to outlaw slavery in what was effectively half the country—“265,878 square miles of unbroken wilderness”—at a time when the country’s southern delegation was adamantly opposed to any restriction of their “peculiar institution”?

When Cutler lobbied members of Congress in New York, McCullough writes, “His manners in particular impressed three of the five members who were southerners. Never before, they said, had they seen such qualities in a northern man.”

This is more than a nice descriptive touch. According to Cutler’s grandchildren (who edited his correspondence and journals), “his way with the southern members of Congress had been the deciding factor” in guaranteeing that there would never be “slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory.”

A thing almost unimaginable, accomplished with civility.

These voters cited a common reason for swinging: a desire for change.

Our eight Erie participants all voted for Obama in 2012, and then switched to Trump in 2016. They voted for Obama because they wanted expanded health care, more fairness, and something different from George W. Bush.

“I didn’t like Bush at all, I thought he did a terrible job,” said one respondent, “and I had hopes that Obama would do better.”

When the change didn’t come after four years of Obama, these change voters . . . stuck with Obama. “In the first four years I thought it was just a leftover from Bush, so I thought, he’s going to make a difference, he’s going to continue doing more things. Which in fact I do not think he did.”

By 2016 they were ready for another change. Trump was different, they said. He wasn’t a typical politician. He wasn’t going to be a pushover with leaders of other nations. He’s willing to be an American, and he wants to take care of America first.

Are they ready to swing to a new partner in 2020? Not really.

“I’m an issue voter,” a respondent said, “and I don’t see it meriting change at this point. When I changed my vote, I gave him eight years.”

Aren’t they tired of Trump’s antics? Not really.

“Sensation sells,” said one. “And there are changes that are happening,” added another: Jobs. Record low unemployment. Rising wages. Good changes in the economy.

But they would like for someone to take away his Twitter account.

Erie swing voters told us their top issues were the economy (they want jobs to come back from Mexico and China), health care, immigration (still waiting for The Wall), education (it really needs improvement, and abortion (they mostly favor restrictions).

They generally like what Trump has done on their top issues, and they’re willing to give him four more years to enact all the changes he promised.

Erie’s part of the Rust Belt, hard hit by the loss of manufacturing jobs. So we asked these voters what they thought of Trump’s trade deal renegotiations and tariffs.

Respondents said they’re hopeful that his trade policy will bring back jobs. It’s too early to tell if it’s working, but they’re willing to wait.

“It kind of sucks while you’re budgeting, but when you buy the car it feels good,” one respondent said. “It’s going to hurt short term, but in the long run it’s going to be better.”

Our voters said they care about climate change and pollution—“We need to take it seriously”—but it’s not a top-five issue.

Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders were the most recognizable faces on the Democratic side, with Elizabeth Warren, Beto O’Rourke, and Kamala Harris rounding out the top tier.

What advice do they have for Democrats considering impeachment? “If you want him out you have to beat him. He’s the best-looking food on the buffet. You’ve got to put out something that’s better.”

Did we leave you wanting more? For video, scores, and a great time the full report, go here.