Working for the Dini for Hoboken Campaign: conducting my own behavioral science case study.

During Summer 2025, I had the privilege of working on community organizing for the Dini for Hoboken Mayoral Campaign. During this experience, I gained a deeper understanding of how embedded behavioral science strategies are in the political canvassing work we did. The majority of the work I did centered around engaging in conversations with residents in order to get their contact information. One of the first strategies I was taught was to fill out at least five names on the contact sign up sheet before I had spoken to residents. My community organizer taught me that studies have shown that individuals are more inclined to write their own name down if they see a list of others who have done the same thing. Learning about this strategy got me very interested in the ways in which behavioral science is incorporated into canvassing and I decided to test out more strategies myself.

High Traffic Canvassing:

The first time I went high traffic canvassing was near a PATH station (New Jersey train station) where I noticed that commuters were in a rush and less inclined to engage in a lengthy conversation. Originally, I started by stopping individuals and positing the question: Are you a registered voter? If the individual responded "yes" then I would go on to explain that Dini was running for mayor and I would walk them through the basic aspects of her platform. However, I realized that many people assumed that responding to my question would result in a lengthy conversation, so the majority of individuals ended up walking by. After limited success, I switched my strategy to simply telling individuals "Dini is running for mayor this fall!" and while I said this I would hand them her brochure. With this form of communication, commuters were happy to take a brochure because they knew they could walk along and not be stopped to converse. Here, I learned that while positing a question may have worked when I visited the farmer's market on a Sunday or stood outside of a yoga class on the pier, it was unsuccessful with high-traffic canvassing. Learning how to switch my strategy based on my target audience was instrumental with my success in canvassing for the campaign.

Testing out my own strategies:

One of the other techniques I learned is known as the foot-in-the-door technique. This technique outlines that if you ask an individual a small request/question that has a high probability of them responding "yes", they are more likely to agree to the second more significant request or question you pose. This can be utilized in political canvassing and campaigning as there are several significant requests we frequently ask that we want a high probability of individuals to agree to. Some of these larger questions/requests could be: Can we count on your support for the upcoming election? Will you now register to vote in the upcoming election? Would you like to support Dini with a donation? Would you be willing to volunteer with the campaign?

In my case study I split the individuals I spoke to into two groups, and I asked these groups two separate questions. The first group got asked an initial question that didn't necessarily have a high probability of resulting in the response "yes." This question was: Would you say Hoboken is headed in the right direction? I had a understanding that Hoboken was going down a rocky financial path, where the City Council was aimlessly giving certain high-end condominiums tax breaks, spending too much of the budget on public safety, and over-approving the construction of large buildings: all raising the tax rate in Hoboken. Because of this, many individuals were not hopeful about Hoboken's future financial situation, which is why I expected alot of "no" responses. After this question, I explained Dini’s goals for Hoboken, and then posited a larger request which was: Can I get your signature to get Dini on the ballot?

For the second group, I started with the question: Are you registered to vote for the upcoming election? I asked this question when we were in a area with a high percentage of registered voters, so this question had a high probability of individuals responding with the answer “yes”. After positing this question, I explained Dini’s goals

for Hoboken, and then I asked the same question as I did to group 1: Can I get your signature to get Dini on the ballot?

My results revealed a positive effect of implementing the foot-out-the-door technique. Out of the individuals in group 2, 80% agreed to sign their names and provide their personal information. However, in group 1 only 46.7% agreed to sign up for the email list. Therefore, my case study shows a positive association between using the foot-in-the-door technique, and individuals being more inclined to fulfill my request.