The Effect of the Closet Voter
7:42 film
In 2016, the closing polls for the EU Referendum and the US Presidential Elections suggested that the results would be the opposite to what the outcomes actually were. This could be explained by the idea of ‘closet voting’, whereby voters are voting the opposite to their friends and family, but will not admit it in hope to prevent judgment and conflict. This shows an element of conformity in a political situation, which is used to cover up a localised non-conformist view. Ironically, despite the voter feeling like they do not have conformist views, they ended up with the majority vote.
This video plays on the term ‘closet voting’ by using a closet/ wardrobe as a space to talk about voting behaviour. It reads text from an essay by Stephen Coleman ‘The Effect of Social Conformity on Collective Voting Behavior’. Despite being published in 2004, it can be applied to the events of 2016. The tone of the film is secretive, with a lack of identity from the whisperer coming from the closet. The identity of the wardrobe itself is also stripped back, isolated the neutral setting. The titles follow the constraints set for polling card design.
