Google, a ‘threat to democracy’ - Study

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The latest study by United States-based psychologists-led by Dr. Robert Epstein of American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology, have contended that Google could be a major ‘threat to any democracy in the world’ given the quality and quantity of data at its disposal.

The study due for official presentation at the annual meeting of the Association for Psychological Science, in Washington, D.C. was entitled ‘Democracy at Risk: Search Rankings Can Shift Voter Preferences Substantially.’

An extract of the study made available to DigitalSENSE Business News exclusively by American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology, showed that Dr Robert Epstein and Dr. Ronald Robertson, may have concluded that Google has the capability to influence the outcome of democratic elections by manipulating search rankings.

The study also revealed that findings are worrisome in that the time has come for regulatory intervention, especially on the Internet.

Dr. Epstein was quoted as saying that “Never in the history of the world has one company held so much power or influence.”

According to him, it is extremely important for public policy makers and regulators to understand why the ability to manipulate search results is so threatening, stressing that this study shows that even democracy could be at risk.

“Search results are already vital to the success or failure of many businesses. Being placed higher in the rankings can mean a significant increase in traffic and revenue; being ranked lower can destroy both,” he said.

Dr. Epstein explained that when you examine this process further, for instance, it shows that if a search engine company wanted to manipulate elections, it could do so without anyone knowing, and it could do it with no financial cost.  At the moment, that is entirely legal.

“Given this influence, I cannot see how this can end up anywhere else but in the hands of regulators.”

In a controlled experiment, conducted on behalf of the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology, Dr. Epstein and colleague Ronald Robertson presented three groups of eligible American voters with actual web pages and search engine results from the 2010 Australian general election.

Participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups: rankings favoring Julia Gillard; rankings favoring Tony Abbott; or rankings that favored neither.  Beforehand, individuals reported having little or no familiarity with the candidates at all.  Based on short biographies, they were asked to rate each candidate and say how they would vote.

They then spent time gathering information using a mock search engine, after which they again rated the candidates in various ways and again said how they would vote.

Before their Internet search, there were no significant differences in how they rated the candidates.  Afterwards, however, two thirds of the people in the first two groups said they would vote for the candidate that was favored in the search rankings – a dramatic shift that could easily “flip” the results of many elections, especially close ones, concludes the report.

Remmy Nweke/DSBNews 
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