UA 'slacktivism' study shows surprising relationship between campaign merch, voting

A University of Arizona study found that people who purchase campaign merchandise may actually be less likely to vote in future elections.

Every election season, voters from across the political spectrum don buttons, hats and other merchandise in support of their preferred candidates, but the study published in the Journal of Public Policy and Marketing found those purchases aren’t a guarantee of electoral success.

The research team, led by Anastasiya Ghosh, analyzed historical survey data from 2016, 2018 and 2018 to look into the so-called “slacktivism” phenomenon. The team also ran other experiments, including tracking real-world behavior during an election cycle and conducting a lab experiment involving students wearing political pins.

“What we found, which was interesting, is that people who made contributions to political merchandise, T-shirts, shirts, etc. were then less likely to engage in more meaningful ways, like volunteer for the campaign, make phone calls, or ultimately, which is really surprising to us, they were less likely to show up and vote,” Ghosh, an associate professor of marketing at the Eller College of Management, said.

A study of eligible voters from the 2020 election found that individuals who purchased political merchandise were 91% less likely to vote and 92% less likely to volunteer compared to people who made monetary donations.

Ghosh said the trend was more pronounced in voters who spent less than $94. The effect waned when people spent more than that on campaign merch.

Ghosh said the study could prove important for candidates and political parties.

“There's obviously this sort of positive feeling that the candidates or their campaign manager gets when they see a lot of purchases of merchandise on their website, right?” she said. “That might be an early signal that people are interested in the candidate, but if it ultimately leads to lower voting …campaigns have to be very strategic when to push the merchandise and when to push donations.”

The research team also included Pureum Kim from the University of North Dakota and Gustavo Schneider from Salisbury University in Maryland.