Raising Voter Turnout As Simple As Adding 'R'

The positive associations with being a "voter" made more people want to cast a ballot than when told they had to "vote."

A report suggests all it might take to get more people to vote is to simply add an “r”: in subsequent studies, people were found to be more likely to say being a “voter” is important than merely having to “vote”. The Stanford University studies, while limited in size, found marked differences between both answers in three studies, leading the researchers to conclude that people might think being called a “voter” is more empowering and suggests voting regularly as opposed to the civic duty of simply voting. Since voters are typically talked about positively, the term could trigger people's vanity over wanting to be seen as a better person. Of course, this raises the issue of if we really want people who wouldn't “vote” but want to be a “voter” casting ballots in the first place, but with only 60 per cent of Canadians voting, we suppose beggars can't be choosers.