God Save This "Broken" Land: The Efficacy of Closed-Circuit Voter Targeting in a U.K. Election

Brian Robert Calfano, Paul A. Djupe, Angelia R. Wilson
2013 Politics and Religion  
Recent research in the United States has found candidates for elected office are able to use a rhetorical form of closed-circuit communication with evangelical Protestants -"God Talk"that communicates valuable political information without alerting other constituencies. Close observation of the 2010 parliamentary elections in the United Kingdom (U.K.) uncovered what appeared to be a form of God Talk in use by David Cameron and the Conservative Party, especially the use of "broken" to describe
more » ... e state of Britain. Thus, we assess whether God Talk is an efficacious communication strategy in the U.K. using an experiment that selectively exposes participants to God Talk statements. The mixed results suggest that some forms of God Talk are better than others in conveying to U.K. evangelicals that a candidate is conservative and religious without triggering the same associations by We wish to thank
doi:10.1017/s1755048312000636 fatcat:k6zo6zshebhyxnjngjiarpsdpy