{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,29]],"date-time":"2026-04-29T09:43:11Z","timestamp":1777455791955,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":61,"publisher":"SAGE Publications","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,1,1]],"date-time":"2023-01-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1672531200000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-nd\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Data Driven Social Science Initiative at Princeton University"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["journals.sagepub.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Big Data &amp; Society"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2023,1]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>We collect and analyze a corpus of more than 300,000 political emails sent during the 2020 US election cycle. These emails were sent by over 3000 political campaigns and organizations including federal and state level candidates as well as Political Action Committees. We find that in this corpus, manipulative tactics\u2014techniques using some level of deception or clickbait\u2014are the norm, not the exception. We measure six specific tactics senders use to nudge recipients to open emails. Three of these tactics\u2014\u201cdark patterns\u201d\u2014actively deceive recipients through the email user interface, for example, by formatting \u201cfrom:\u201d fields so that they create the false impression the message is a continuation of an ongoing conversation. The median active sender uses such tactics 5% of the time. The other three tactics, like sensationalistic clickbait\u2014used by the median active sender 37% of the time\u2014are not directly deceptive, but instead, exploit recipients\u2019 curiosity gap and impose pressure to open emails. This can further expose recipients to deception in the email body, such as misleading claims of matching donations. Furthermore, by collecting emails from different locations in the US, we show that senders refine these tactics through A\/B testing. Finally, we document disclosures of email addresses between senders in violation of privacy policies and recipients\u2019 expectations. Cumulatively, these tactics undermine voters\u2019 autonomy and welfare, exacting a particularly acute cost for those with low digital literacy. We offer the complete corpus of emails at https:\/\/electionemails2020.org for journalists and academics, which we hope will support future work.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1177\/20539517221145371","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,1,23]],"date-time":"2023-01-23T03:30:52Z","timestamp":1674444652000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/sage-journals-update-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":24,"title":["Manipulative tactics are the norm in political emails: Evidence from 300K emails from the 2020 US election cycle"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"10","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3719-676X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Arunesh","family":"Mathur","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Science, Princeton University, Princeton, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9140-3523","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Angelina","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Science, Princeton University, Princeton, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9084-946X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Carsten","family":"Schwemmer","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Sociology, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Maia","family":"Hamin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Science, Princeton University, Princeton, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7657-3089","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Brandon M","family":"Stewart","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Sociology and Office of Population Research, Princeton University, Princeton, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7176-4479","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Arvind","family":"Narayanan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Science, Princeton University, Princeton, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,1,23]]},"reference":[{"key":"bibr1-20539517221145371","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1057\/s41309-020-00097-7"},{"key":"bibr2-20539517221145371","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/(SICI)1099-0992(1998110)28:6<861::AID-EJSP899>3.0.CO;2-D"},{"key":"bibr3-20539517221145371","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.pragma.2014.11.010"},{"key":"bibr4-20539517221145371","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/ajps.12528"},{"key":"bibr5-20539517221145371","unstructured":"Brignull H (2018) Dark patterns. https:\/\/darkpatterns.org. 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