We Will Ask if You Voted

That's the way to increase voter turnout, according to a National Bureau of Economic Research study. In an experiment designed to determine the effect of social pressure on voting behavior, researchers discovered that social image plays a role in voter turnout. "People vote because others will ask," say the researchers. If people are informed before an election that they will be asked after the election whether they voted, more turn out to vote.

Source: National Bureau of Economic Research, Voting to Tell Others, NBER Working Paper 19832