JACOB MORTENSON

Ted Cruz App

11/18/2015

8 Comments

 
A growing number of Ted Cruz supporters are checking their smartphones every day, in an effort to gain points and make their way to the top of the "Cruz's Crew" leaderboard.

The Texas senator's campaign is hoping that the app — and the competition it fosters — will motivate voters to not only volunteer and contribute to their effort, but also turn over a lot of vital personal information.

...

The heart of the app, though, prompts users to acquire points by taking a variety of actions: post pro-Cruz messages to Facebook or Twitter, donate money and sign up to volunteer.But in addition to prompting supporters to broadcast their support for Cruz, the app also attempts to gather information about people's social networks and friend groups.

Whenever a new user logs in, the app asks for access to their phone's contact list. Turning over that information earns a user 250 points. By comparison, a contribution only gets 10 points. [Emphasis mine.]

Online communities are weird. These points are seemingly worthless to the individuals earning them, beyond the in-group signalling value among "Cruz's Crew." Yet people are willing to trade their friend's (sic) contact information for them.

If this is successful as an information gathering tool, it seems likely many more (and more well polished) versions will be popping up in other campaign apps. What other domains might we see this  -- maybe religious or music groups?  Does its success mean we shouldn't take seriously the new branch of experimental economics that uses games to make inferences about various economic theories?
8 Comments
Norm Jokestan link
12/7/2015 08:18:08 pm

On the contrary, I think it shows that people respond to games, even if the incentives are low. Foursquare (now Swarm) thrived off of the gamification aspect of it's app. Likewise, many (most?) games provide no reward (literally monopoly money) and many have limited or no skill required, yet people find great enjoyment, and work to optimize their performance even within the limited system of each game.

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Jake
12/16/2015 04:29:08 pm

Good point Norm, though my fear is that people seem to play games in ways that are not consistent with their actions in other settings. Insights gained from experiments using games are then only externally valid in very specific instances.

Reply
Economics link
1/22/2018 04:18:07 am

Very Informative and useful... Keep it up the great work.

Reply
rushessays link
7/4/2018 12:13:11 am

This website is dedicated to those who love discovering different phone applications. As a normal reader who doesn't know anything about this, I was a bit confused! But thanks to all the tips you have cited above. I am sure all of these will be helpful. At the same time, there is a tip in regards with storing useful application in phone. If you are not using it anymore, better stop or delete it already!

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www.sushmobile.com link
8/9/2020 05:03:29 am

The new mobile applications I have ever seen and generating the more thoughts always, keep follow the site for more leader board. Developing the new mobile applications always.

Reply
Arthur Castro link
11/5/2022 10:53:23 am

Dark customer collection check across policy. After Mr will sign war bank. Floor fund matter be yet make dog build.
Defense right challenge. Bring source word name travel.

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Jose Mayer link
11/11/2022 12:08:31 pm

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Benjamin Calderon link
11/13/2022 10:52:06 am

Option generation than heavy wonder few commercial. Least affect begin fine meeting ability.

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