Research informs every strategy, every step of the way.
We work at the intersection of data science, behavioral psychology, and neuroscience to find women who want progress on key issues but aren’t reliably playing a role to get us there, connect with them on their values, and impact their civic behavior.
Current research
Our latest research centers on understanding the internal and external factors that influence civic behavior in order to develop strategies that reach the right people with the right message to advance progress.
Message Development & Testing
Galvanize Action creates and rigorously tests messages that combat disinformation, strengthen support for progress, and defend against hate and division. We connect with moderate women—women who are not ideologically entrenched, meaning they are open to new ideas and perspectives—on all the issues impacting their lives: kitchen table issues like the economy and healthcare, culture war topics such as reproductive freedom and the growing backlash to equity, and the importance of democracy and trust in our elections. Our year-round approach sets us up to quickly respond to harmful narratives as they become hot topics in the public discourse.
For example, in 2021 our research found that COVID was the leading disinformation narrative both in frequency of posts and engagement. To combat this disinformation we developed messages and memes that built support for vaccines among white women. The messages met our audience at their values, such as the shared goal of keeping kids safe and in school.
Currently, we are seeing a virulent backlash to gender equity and public schools being used to drive a wedge in our communities. We ran several rapid message tests to learn how we might counter the anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-public education narratives we know our audience is being inundated with. A sample of white women nationwide were randomly assigned to see either a placebo message or one of the messages we provided, including this one: Our children are growing up in a world that looks different to the one we grew up in. At times it can be hard to know how to support them. So I’m grateful that their teachers and educators are there to help them figure things out and guide them with us. That’s why we need to ensure schools can give our kids all the tools and support they need to thrive in our changing world.
Moderate suburban white women were more likely to agree that politicians should stop interfering with teachers’ ability to educate our kids about gender and sexuality in an age appropriate way after seeing this message.
To date, we have over 475 messages that have caused statistically significant movement on topics including critical race theory, climate, reproductive freedom, the economy, immigration, democracy, and healthcare. View our messages, memes, and ads in the Art & Science of Persuasion Playbook.
Randomized Controlled Trials & Tracking Surveys
We utilize tracking surveys for nuanced insights on shifts in our audience’s attitudes, opinions, and behaviors over time and randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to study the effectiveness of our programming. This research in the field deepens our understanding of moderate white women and allows us to adjust programming to maximize our impact.
Understanding the impact significant political events have on our audience is another benefit of this research. Galvanize Action’s 2022 tracking survey of 2,000 white women across Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Ohio asked women to name their top concerns over a seven-month period. We began this survey May 1, 2022, before the leaked draft of the Supreme Court opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade. At that time, just 26.5 percent of those surveyed named abortion as a top concern. In the survey fielded June 28—four days after the Supreme Court’s decision—that number jumped to 40.8 percent.
The 2022 tracking survey also included an RCT. Half of the women—those in the treatment group—saw our ads on reproductive freedom, the economy, healthcare, culture war issues, and democracy. Women in the control group did not see any of these ads. The persuasion programming increased agreement that public officials should take action to ensure all women have the freedom to make their own decisions about abortion by 5pp, and increased the saliency of abortion as a top issue for right-of-center white women voters by 28.7pp. This extraordinary outcome is significantly higher than the average persuasion impact.
Abortion as a Top Issue for Voters
Agreement that Officials Should Protect the Right to Abortion
Traits & Values that Drive Political & Civic Behavior
Galvanize Action’s foundational research identified racial resentment, internalized sexism, and in-group favoritism as drivers of political and civic behavior. Everyone holds these traits to some extent, so we wanted to dig deeper to understand the intersections and root causes in an effort to identify where we could intervene and find a path forward. We learned, for example, it’s not racial resentment alone that drives political and civic behavior. For many in our audience, racial resentment appears to stem from a “just world view” bias. This is the belief that our institutions are fair, and hard work will be rewarded equally. For these individuals, issues about race become issues about fairness and who they feel is getting extra help.
In an effort to deepen our understanding of our audience, we spent the summer of 2023 doing innovative qualitative research with partners at FrameShift and Worthy Strategy Group to understand moderate women’s identity, their perceptions of the world, and how interacting with others may shift those views. This research revealed many new insights, such as what’s underneath a lack of engagement from our youngest segment of moderate women. (Hint: frivolity and TikTok aren’t to blame.) Understanding these interactions and root causes allows us to develop effective programming that meets women at their current reality; it’s what makes our approach so unique.
foundational Research
Our foundational research took us beyond demographics to more deeply understand white women voters and the values that drive their choices. Conducted in partnership with Lake Research Partners, Topos, GBAO Strategies, and Precision, this research included individual interviews, surveys, and voter file analysis.
We are continually building on this research by conducting data modeling, studying the traits and values that impact political behavior, and applying lessons from neuroscience to identify who we should connect with and how to effectively engage with them.
Disinformation Study
Polarization continues to pose a grave threat to our democracy. One reason we’re so divided is that we are not all working off the same set of facts. Disinformation and grievance-based politics are being used to drive the wedge deeper. With our partners at GQR, we studied* how white women are being targeted with disinformation and how it is reaching them so that we can develop strategies to protect against it.
Our disinformation research revealed that how women spend their time online—and who they spend it with—are major factors in their exposure to and belief in disinformation narratives. Key learnings include:
- Moderate women in rural, small town, and especially suburban America are being targeted with disinformation that taps into feelings of scarcity to trigger fear, anxiety, and resentment.
- The majority of women who have seen a high volume of a particular disinformation narrative believe it. For example, 62% of women who have seen a lot of content about “Vaccines are not safe” believe that to be true.
- Disinformation is largely coming from social media, especially Facebook and Facebook groups.
- It’s not how much someone uses social media that matters, it’s how many platforms they use. Women who use two or fewer social media platforms are much more likely to encounter and believe disinformation—especially when one of those platforms is Facebook.
Disinformation Narratives Women Find Believable
over 50% of those surveyed responded to these narratives as either very or somewhat believable
* GQR conducted a survey of 1,500 white women registered voters, 300 each from GA, MI, NC, PA, and WI (July 2-11, 2021).
Applications in the Field
We believe in scaling our impact by sharing our work! The research we conduct at Galvanize Action is used by other organizations to impact their efforts in communities across the country. Visit our Art & Science of Persuasion Playbook to see our radical collaboration in action.
For example, in 2020 the One For All Committee used Galvanize Action’s publicly available research, messaging, and strategies rooted in neuroscience to connect with and persuade women to vote for an America where we all can thrive. They developed and deployed the ads below in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Maine leading up to the presidential election, and continue to apply these strategies and audience insights today.
In 2022, ally organizations across the country deployed the content we freely share and used our research, neuroscience insights, and audience understanding to enhance their impact. Learn more about how partners utilized our tools.
For additional information about any of our research or to discuss an interest in collaborating with our team, please contact Kristin Wheeler, chief strategy officer.