December 14, 2015

The Cruz campaign uses "a team of statisticians and behavioral psychologists" who do "psycho­graphic targeting" with "their own version of a Myers-Briggs personality test."

According to The Washington Post.
The test data is supplemented by recent issue surveys, and together they are used to categorize supporters, who then receive specially tailored messages, phone calls and visits. Micro-targeting of voters has been around for well over a decade, but the Cruz operation has deepened the intensity of the effort and the use of psychological data....

The personality and political scores applied by the campaign are used to tightly tailor outreach to individuals. For example, personalities that have received high scores for “neuroticism” are believed to be generally fearful, so a pro-gun pitch to them would emphasize the use of firearms for personal safety and might include a picture of a burglar breaking in to a home.

But those who score high for “openness” or traditional values are more likely to receive a message that promotes hunting as a family activity, perhaps accompanied by an image of a father taking his son duck hunting....

Cruz’s campaign manager, Jeff Roe, spit chewing tobacco into a soft drink bottle as he explained the campaign’s heavy investment in data and analysis....
Whoa! Stop right there! This was rolling along like the height of sophistication and then Jeff Roe spit chewing tobacco into a soft drink bottle. What a crazy world....

37 comments:

Pettifogger said...

Sophisticated data analysis and chewing tobacco. Welcome to Texas, except I'll bet it was snuff and not chewing tobacco. Snuff is more popular, and what are the odds the reporter knows the difference?

ddh said...

That's so the reader will know that the Cruz campaign is not filled with brie-eating surrender RINOs and will feel a frisson of contempt for the rubes and other Tea Party-types spitting tobacco juice into a soda bottle. Cultured people use a Hellman's mayonnaise jar.

Rob said...

Spitting into a soft drink bottle--talk about your micro-targeting!

Michael K said...

Consultants gotta consult.

They all think they know how Obama's campaign put that unqualified empty suit in office.

We'll see if they figured it out.

David Begley said...

Obama did something similar and won twice.

CJinPA said...

Funny to see them micro-target messages in such a sophisticated manner, and then conclude that the Washington Post could be trusted to properly deliver their message about micro-targeting.

I guess the target of this micro-targeting was the D.C. donor/consultant class. Showing that Cruz is a cutting-edge campaign, not just red-meat sound bites. They may have hit the narrow target, but everyone else reads it as "Creepy Hillbillies."

Mark said...

All your preconceptions are belong to us. (Pop cultural reference alert.)

Anonymous said...

Neuroticism and openness scales are part of the Five-Factor psychological test, not the Myers-Briggs.

rehajm said...

The personality and political scores applied by the campaign are used to tightly tailor outreach to individuals. For example, personalities that have received high scores for “neuroticism” are believed to be generally fearful...

It's good to hear Republicans are reaching across the aisle to bridge the partisan divide.

traditionalguy said...

The elite Ted Cruz was raised in the Cuban ruling class that was under the Spanish Empire until the War with Spain. And he is no born in the USA. The perfect Conservative is a faking being conservative.

Mary Beth said...

Right? He should have been vaping.

Sebastian said...

"This was rolling along like the height of sophistication and then Jeff Roe spit chewing tobacco into a soft drink bottle. What a crazy world...." He should have known that without a proper display of sophistication Cruz might lose Althouse. Next time, Jeff, roll a joint and puff away, sophisticatedly. And call it "my daily dose of medicine," with a sophisticated wink of course.

rehajm said...

This was rolling along like the height of sophistication and then Jeff Roe spit chewing tobacco into a soft drink bottle

I know right? Everyone knows you keep it classy by spitting tobacco juice into a paper milk carton.

James Graham said...

Cruz, supposedly super-intelligent, hires an idiot who thinks chewing tobacco in front of a journalist is not stupid.

Bob Ellison said...

Cultured people start with a mayonnaise jar but graduate to a caper jar. That earns a badge in Culture Scouts.

Laslo Spatula said...

Sarah's mind slips wistful into the past, to that One Hot Summer in 1957 in Madison County...

"Miss Sarah, I've been a-thinking..."

"Yes, my sweet Mandingo?"

"What if I was to run for Mayor of our town?"

"That's funny, my Mandingo."

"Why is it funny? I didn't means it to be funny."

"It's funny because you are a Negro, silly."

"But I runs the Junkyard real fine, and I bet I could do the same for the Town if I was just given the chance..."

"Well, to begin with, Negroes are not allowed in Town after dark, so that would limit your ability as Mayor, right there."

"I bet I could gets everything done during the daylight, Miss Sarah."

"No, my dear Mandingo: the Real Governing doesn't happen until the Nighttime when the Bigwigs go off and smoke their cigars, let down their suspenders and get drunk."

"Maybe they'd change the Law for me, being Mayor and all."

"I don't think there's a chance of that happening in a million years, my Love: Negroes will always be meant to go home after dark. It is just the way it is: Negroes are hard to see at night, because they are black and all, and usually up to No Good..."

"I guess so..."

"Plus, politicians have to shake hands -- they have to shake a LOT of hands."

"I can shake hands, Miss Sarah."

"Oh, my silly Mandingo: most townsfolk would rather shoot you than shake hands with you, you being a Negro. You understand?"

"They'd shoot me? Like an assassination?"

"Oh, Mandingo: assassinations are for Important White People. You can't assassinate a Negro, it's like saying someone assassinated the chicken for dinner."

"It's a hard world here for a Negro."

"Try being a white woman, having to find Just the Right Dress to wear to the Mayor's Gala Ball..."

I am Laslo.

Tom said...

I have some clients in Texas. That the smart guy who's using sophisticated data is also spitting in a cup is of zero surprise to me. That. Is. Texas.

Anonymous said...

Using psychographic targeting while spitting tobacco juice into a soft drink bottle, symbolic of the Republican Party of today existing in a modern world and yet embracing disgusting habits of days gone by.

walter said...

Snuf Shaming!

Should have fired up a hookah just to mess with them.

John henry said...


Blogger Sebastian said...

Next time, Jeff, roll a joint and puff away, sophisticatedly. And call it "my daily dose of medicine," with a sophisticated wink of course.

Except that would be illegal. How about roll a cigarette, stick it in his mouth and not light it. Leave the reporter wondering what it is.

Or maybe get Cruz all painted up like he was in that add with the tattoos and then at some suitable venue as he is speaking remove his tie. Then his Jacket, then his shirt.

Anything to fuck with the MSM. They certainly do it enough to us.

John Henry

Anonymous said...

A crazy world we live in, when a Miley Cyrus gives a blow job to a blow up doll on stage...but we have to embrace that.

khematite@aol.com said...

An old story That began over a half-century ago, although originally somewhat more sociological than psychological in its focus. What the Post describes is highly reminiscent of the 1960 Simulmatics project initiated by Professor Ithiel de Sola Pool of MIT, with one intention being to offer advice that might help JFK win the presidency. Eugene Burdick's 1964 novel "The 480" provides a fictionalized account of that story.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_480

This was discussed in a recent New Yorker article:

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/11/16/politics-and-the-new-machine

Once written, twice... said...

I know you all are waiting for me to say "hillbilly."

Wilbur said...

In central Illinois I tried cases against two different lawyers (one the former State's Attorney) who used to dip right in the courtroom. The amazing thing to me was that they never once spit. Damnedest thing I ever saw.

walter said...

"Choom"!

walter said...

Obama aint no hillbilly

Sammy Finkelman said...

They think that this works, but to the extent that this works, a much simpler algorithm or formula would work.

And some of this is just creating a little bubble for people (and by it's very nature, it's limited to people really into the Ted Cruz etc. universe.)

But the Cruz campaign is paying a great deal of money for this.

It is all the doing of Robert Mercer, who is maybe the force behind a company called and Cambridge Analytica. He's a contributor to Ted Cruz, and a Super Pac backing him, and the same man contributes to Breitbart also.

http://theconservativetreehouse.com/2015/11/22/why-breitbart-website-is-fundraising-for-ted-cruz/

(see some of the comments here - people can't get off the Ted Cruz campaign snail mail/e-mail/phone lists even by unsubscribing to Breitbart - it's too late.)

The favorite Cruz and pro-Cruz slogan is: ‘most consistent conservative’

How he stands alone. Which he tries a lot of. To no point. For no logical reasons really, mostly. With special arguments.

Donald Trump also likes to stand alone.

Trump tries to be politically incorrect and mean (hoping people buy into the Listerine theory of public policy) while Cruz focuses mainly on being irrational, erratic and unpredictable.

Birkel said...

Am I supposed to get all wee-weed-up about tobacco use?

mikee said...

How the heck do you think Obama beat the annointed Hillary in 2008? His campaign led in the application of this technique, and boasted about it winning critical Ohio counties for him in the general election.

As to the reporter highlighting a spit due to chaw: demonize an opponent for one characteristic and then ridicule and denounce him for it - Alinsky.

While this is from an older playbook, it still checks out.

Birkel said...

Was there a time when Sammy Finkleman was not a concern troll?

Am I mis-remembering?

Sammy Finkelman said...

Cruz or people supporting Cruz, are doing a lot of advertising in Iowa, mainly against Rubio. Cruz is also building an infrastructure and trying to get people to relate to the Cruz campaign - that is, trying to build a little off-line Cruz world, too.

Rubio is attacking (through the news media) Cruz on his support for ending the collection of telephone metadata - which Cruz probably really did to gain support from people who might otherwise support Rand Paul.

Whatever position Cruz takes, of course, he can defend, but Cruz doesn't defend that, but attacks Rubio for his support of the immigration "Gang of 8" bill, and for working with Senator Charles Schumer = non-"conservative",

And then Rubio (through aides) quietly pushes on reporters the meme that Cruz isn't all that much against amnesty as he says, because he proposed an amendment whose only or major change would have been to remove the provision for eventual citizenship, while keeping the "coming out of the shadows" legalization, and Cruz says he introduced the amendment for tactical reasons, and not because he actually would be satisfied with the bill in that case.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/07/us/politics/marco-rubio-switching-focus-aims-to-halt-ted-cruzs-momentum.html

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-11-13/did-ted-cruz-actually-support-legal-status-for-undocumented-immigrants-

Rubio also says Cruz is not against legal immigration that doesn't lead to citizenship because he was for increasing the cap on H1-B visas from 65,000 to 325,000 (Now the whole program is coming under attack from restrictionists. Cruz is no longer so much for the H1-B visas. Democrats also don't like Guest Worker programs, especially when it might interfere with unionization.)

cubanbob said...

I'm not sure what the criticism is about. Just look at the daily DNC emails and it's obvious they are doing the same.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

Duck hunting=Duck Dynasty=homophobia=keep those dollars flowing into the DNC coffers,lads.

Michael said...

Politics is about building coalitions. If you get the high tech and the chewing tobacco guys (and everybody in between) on the same side, you've got something going.

Sammy Finkelman said...

According to Politico (July 7th) Cambridge Analytica sent staff to Cruz’s campaign headquarters in Houston to help set up its intensive data analysis operation.

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/ted-cruz-donor-for-data-119813#ixzz3uLAJBd36

Cambridge Analytica is also associated, says Politico, with a British firm called SCL Group, (short for Strategic Communication Laboratories) which made up a video showing how they would delude the public (in a "good cause" - preventing people from spreading smallpox by teling them there were poisons. In another video scenario, SCL steps in to assist the benevolent king of "Manpurea" to temporarily seize power.



hombre said...

This was a WaPo hit piece. Nothing more.

Birkel said...

I see now my question about "Sammy Finkleman" has been answered.

Conspiracy theorizing is fun and almost always wrong.