Can Google fix elections?

I read an article in a leading news website (its sort of a tabloid these days), which were based on a study by Dr. Robert Epstein & his team, he is Senior Research Psychologist at the American Institute for Behavioural Research and Technology in California. The project was based on Search Engine Manipulation Effect, with the acronym SEME.

In the research study a group of undecided participants (1800 voters) were divided into groups in which search rankings were biased towards ArvindĀ  Kejriwal, Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi based on which group they were in. All these participants were asked to search for the candidates in a normal way, with only a difference of results appearance based on the groups assigned.

The results, the voting preferences favorably shifted by an average of 12.5 percent towards the candidates (Kejriwal, Gandhi / Modi) groups they were assigned. And this shift was hugely shifted in the categories of unemployed voters (18 percent) and women voters over 35 years (19 percent). And detection rate of this biased by the participants was just 1 percent. Continue reading