Searching the Primaries

What if searching for presidential candidates on Google became a new method of voting?

How It Works Searching the Primaries is a data visualization exploring the relationship between Google search trends for the remaining 2016 presidential candidates and actual results from the 2016 presidential primary elections and caucuses.

Research Research suggests that Google search is already influencing the outcomes of elections, and this phenomenon is called “Search Engine Manipulation Effect” or SEME. A recent article about SEME explains that “Google’s search algorithm can easily shift the voting preferences of undecided voters by 20 percent or more—up to 80 percent in some demographic groups—with virtually no one knowing they are being manipulated.” Findings After comparing the two datasets, we found that after every single primary election, there was an increase in googling of the primary candidates, with the winning candidate typically getting the greatest increase in google searches and this went against what we had expected. We had anticipated that voters would want to research the candidates before elections and that there would be an increase in google searches leading up to each election. However, it seems that voters actually end up googling candidates after each primary election.

Technology

Rosalind Paradis and I created this project in HTML, CSS, Javascript and D3.js for a Data Visualization course taught by Gabriel Gianordoli at at Parsons School of Design.