By Alan Greenblatt | Governing
Want to convince constituents about the wisdom of your position on a controversial issue? Let them know about it.
That’s the lesson from a recent study from the University of California at Berkeley and Washington University in St. Louis. A pair of political scientists asked a group of legislators in the Midwest to send out letters informing voters of their stances on certain issues. Even though some of them were controversial, such as decriminalizing marijuana and allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses, before-and-after polling of their districts showed that their letters moved public opinion in their favor.
