Can Crowdsourcing Save Democracy?

Partisan political differences have transformed heated disagreements to something more abusive, and violent with all sides determined to silence the other. Democracy is in danger but what can be done to get both sides talking again and reduce anti-demoractic action? Academics at renowned American educational institution Stanford University have turned to crowdsourcing for answers. Headed by the Stanford and Polarisation and Social Change Lab this new initiative will collect and test a series of proposed interventions to reduce aggressive anti-democratic attitudes. This online experiment called The Strengthening Democracy Challenge'  will test 30,000 participants with the most successful models published and its developers awarded a cash prize.

According to the Survey Centre on American Life, a project devised by a non profit US think tank the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) increasingly alarming numbers of American favour the use of violence to achieve political ends. In what has been a turbulent time in politics heralded by the surprise election win of Donald Trump, and the politicising of the Covid-19 global pandemic partisan divide has widened, racial tensions inflamed and a rise in organised conspiracy theorist groups like 'QAnon'. The loss of faith in the system has seen some groups use violence and riots to further their own political need such as the storming of Michigan's Statehouse, a plot to kidnap that state's Governor Gretchen Whitmer, and of course the January 6 Capitol riots. The AEI's show's an alarming support for violence for political ends in particular to prevent the erosion of traditional conservative values. 

Anti-democratic attitudes and support for political violence are at alarming levels in the US. We know partisan animosity has been increasing for years, and may play a role in the concerning anti-democratic attitudes we’re seeing. -  Robb Willer, director of the Polarization and Social Change Lab and Professor of Sociology at Stanford.

Stanford University's 'Strengthening Democracy Challenge' is less about changing political views but rather reducing the support for partisan violence and animosity.  The project is run in partnership with researchers from other renowned universities MIT, Northwestern, and Columbia. The multidisciplinary team is made up top names in the field of political science, psychology, sociology, and economics. The challenge invites experts, academics, and generally anyone with ideas to submit their interventions in accordance to laid out guidelines and requirements. The interventions can take any form be it a reading exercise, a writing task, audio and video content. Once the test subject engages with the intervention they will the be asked a series of questions to gauge their attitudes from personal observations, memory recollections, or general views and outlooks. These must be last no more than eight minutes and be available online. 

There are many potential ways to reduce anti-democratic attitudes, support for partisan violence, and partisan animosity. We designed our project to achieve goals beyond the scale of typical scientific studies. The Strengthening Democracy Challenge estimates the relative effectiveness of different interventions, provides a high-quality testing opportunity to scholars and practitioners who may currently lack access, unifies the currently dispersed knowledge across different social sciences and practitioners, and is committed to unbiased and complete reporting of results. - J Voelkel, Ph.D. student at Stanford and one of the co-organizers of the challenge. 

A total of 25 interventions will be selected and tested  on 30,000 participants; around 1000  at a time with party affiliations will randomly assigned a submission - 500 democrats and 500 republicans. Control tests will be given to 5000 participants. The panel will test the interventions in their effectiveness in reducing anti-democratic attitudes, partisan violence, and partisan animosity. The interventions that are most effective in each category will be awarded up $15,000 and have their results published in leading journals. The project will be accepting submissions until 1st October 2021. For more details on how to participate visit the university's 'Strengthening Democracy Challenge' website.