GAMIFICATION OF ELECTIONS – PART 1
Electoral turnout has been in steady decline over the past several decades. Neither the numerous motivational incentives, nor the lowering of the voting age, nor the pandering to electoral fringe groups could spur voters to take their voices to the ballots. While here in Austria there were 500.000 more voters eligible for the general election (Nationalratswahl) in 2018 than 13 years ago, the percentage of voter participation dropped more than 7% – from 86% in 1995 to 78.8% in 2018. The same pattern can be witnessed in the Austrian presidential elections. From a “high water mark” of 95% back in the 70s, the turnout declined continuously to reach the lowest ever value of 70% in 2016. This pattern emerges throughout all elections. But why?
Reasons for this phaenomenon are plenty and yet not well and truly understood. A classic theory for explaining voter fatigue is the “disenchantment with politics” (Politikverdrossenheit) within the population. Often times resignation amongst the voter derives from views like “It doesn’t matter who is in power, things won’t change anyway!”. Other sentiments, like “My vote doesn’t make a difference” or “my views and beliefs are just not important enough” reinforce this political apathy. In a polarized world like this, the lack of exact representation of one’s ideals and views through political parties also acts as a deterrent to vote.
Another, more understood, reason for the occurrence of voter fatigue is the wealth of opinions, stances and options the voter has to choose from. Studies show that given too many different choices, a person’s decisiveness significantly drops. This “paradox of choice” (Auswahl-Paradoxon) shows that humans, instead of making a “seemingly wrong choice”, avoid the choice altogether.
In the past couple of years, occasional attempts at combating this trend with the help of “gamification” were made. Gamification is, to quote Wikipedia:
“ […] the application of game-design elements and game principles in non-game contexts. Gamification commonly employs game design elements to improve user engagement, […] voter apathy, and more.”
While being at the core of games since the beginning of time, the use of game design elements in real life applications is a rather new concept. Still, everyone who ever played a game of Uno, Risk or Mario Kart knows – at least indirectly – the effects certain game design elements and competition can have on the player. But can this energy, this intrinsic motivation, be used to make the electoral process interesting again?
Up next: What is gamification, and how can I avoid use it?
Further reading:
www.huffingtonpost.com/gabe-zichermann/improve-voter-turn-out_b_2127459.html
