THE location of a polling booth affects the choices voters make.
In 2000, residents of Arizona voted on whether to increase education spending by raising taxes. About a quarter of votes were cast at stations in schools, where the proportion supporting the initiative was significantly higher than at non-school stations: 56 per cent compared with 54 per cent. The result stands after correcting for other factors, such as income status, say Christian Wheeler at Stanford University in California and colleagues.
In a lab experiment they also found that people primed with images of schools were more likely to vote for increased education funding (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, ).
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