Academic from Southampton helping to predict election results
This election sees many people currently unsure about how to vote. Some may be considering voting for a party that they previously opposed on ideological grounds. Under such circumstances, polls might well be less accurate than usual. This is where the Implicit Association Test, or IAT, comes in. The IAT is essentially a rapid-fire classification task run on computer. It is designed to tap into people’s underlying associations. By assessing associations between political candidates, like Gordon Brown and David Cameron, and evaluative concepts, like better and worse, the IAT can serve as an indirect measure of people’s political preferences. A paper recently published in Science magazine by Galdi and colleagues found that, even among voters who were undecided about which candidate to vote for, the IAT predicted well above chance which candidate they eventually did vote for. In effect, the IAT “knew” the minds of prospective voters better than they did. Additional research by Greenwald and colleagues has shown that the predictive accuracy of the IAT can sometimes rival that of conventional questionnaires. Take the IAT now. Find out more about the School of Psychology. Find out more about the University of Southampton. Looking for funding for postgraduate studies in 2010? Check out the exclusive bursaries on offer from Postgrad Solutions. Content added on 4th May 2010. |
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Dr Aiden Gregg from the School of Psychology at the University of Southampon has helped develop a test to predict how peoples vote - which is particularly relevant with the upcoming General Election on 6th May.