Nudge to Vote: Encouraging Voter Registration with Nudge Theory

AHA! Behavioral Design

Three nudges — barkada framing, issue salience, and a planning chatbot — that lifted youth voter registration.

Target Segment: Filipino youth (Gen Z and Millennials) who are eligible voters.

Challenge: How might we get Pinoys to encourage their friends to register; prod dissatisfied Pinoys to register and see it as a way to solve their issues; and help non-registered people plan their trip to the COMELEC office efficiently and stick to it?

BD Solution: AHA! BD created 3 prototypes: Tara, Reg! (a social media campaign framing voter registration as a barkada activity); Start With Youth (a campaign using the youth's stress about the country's situation as motivation to register); and Ready to Reg (a chatbot that helps youth plan their schedule and requirements for COMELEC registration).

Results: Significant difference in voter registration pre- to post-test across all prototypes; 12% more participants registered in treatment groups than control; those with no plans to register dropped from 10.9% to 2.7% in treatment groups. Tara, Reg! shares correlated with number of people influenced (r=.56) and friends invited (r=.82); via Start With Youth, 98.1% viewed registering as a way to solve the country's problems and 88.9% said it lessened felt distress; 95.7% found Ready to Reg helpful in planning.