Innovating for the Public Good: R&D for Democracy

With the 2026 midterm elections approaching, new research commissioned by IFPG and conducted by Dewey Digital finds that leading AI platforms are providing voters with inaccurate & outdated information about voting and candidates on their ballots. innovatingforpublicgood.substack.com/p/new-analys...

The research also finds substantial differences in accuracy depending on which AI platform a voter uses and significant gaps between responses to English- and Spanish-language questions. innovatingforpublicgood.substack.com/p/new-analys...

Trust collapses when people can’t tell what’s real. IFPG works on the biggest lever in that collapse — the information environment itself — building tools, research, and interventions to restore people’s capacity to know what is true. Here’s some of the work IFPG is doing:

🔹 AI & The Midterms: IFPG & Dewey Digital are measuring how open the campaign websites of competitive 2026 candidates are to AI crawlers. The field covers every U.S. Senate, Governor and House race rated a toss-up or lean by the Cook Political Report or Sabato's Crystal Ball.

Trust collapses when people can’t tell what’s real. IFPG works on the biggest lever in that collapse — the information environment itself — building tools, research, and interventions to restore people’s capacity to know what is true. Here’s some of the work IFPG is doing:

The American electorate is changing rapidly and dramatically. That is why IFPG is identifying new cohorts of voters, developing new models to target key cohorts and use resources more effectively, designing new measurements to determine ROI, and looking ahead to 2030 and 2032. See our work below:

Double Negative/Double Haters: IFPG developed a model to help identify these voters, many of whom fall out of persuasion universes. These voters are here to stay, and they need to be understood. We want to continue to socialize this model throughout this cycle and into the next.

The Right has used powerful narratives to gain power and create false heuristics for Americans to understand their lives. To revitalize our democracy, our greatest challenge is to change the conversations people have in their heads about our country, its leaders and its direction. Here is how:

🔹 The Bandwagon Effect: We know from behavioral science that people want to consider themselves part of an “in-group." IFPG is exploring whether this dynamic could be employed to encourage more partisan voting through voter research testing the impact of social signaling.

The Right has used powerful narratives to gain power and create false heuristics for Americans to understand their lives. To revitalize our democracy, our greatest challenge is to change the conversations people have in their heads about our country, its leaders and its direction. Here is how:

🔹 Othering: “Us versus them” narratives and the dehumanization of certain groups have been a path to power on the Right. IFPG research examines how to weaken its power holistically. There is much more to do, including field pilot programs and scaling these approaches as we prepare for 2028.

Ben Lazarus recently shared some of the work we’ve been doing at Innovating for the Public Good to better identify and reach “double negative” voters — people who hold negative views of both major political parties. www.youtube.com/live/lEn_-uM...

A new IFPG study examines every House, Senate & Governor race rated "toss-up" or "lean" by The Cook Political Report or Sabato's Crystal Ball in the 2026 midterm election: 63 races in 24 states, with 126 campaigns from both Republican and Democratic candidates. substack.com/@pagegardner...

Happening Today at 12pm ET: IFPG Founder @pagegardner.bsky.social is launching "Feelings Over Facts: Embracing an Emotions-First Narrative Strategy" with @jiggygero.bsky.social, Kate Catherall & @drewwesten.bsky.social. Register for the conversation here: us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

One of the biggest mistakes communicators make is assuming that facts change minds. That's why IFPG partnered w/ Dr. @jiggygero.bsky.social and Kate Catherall to create Feelings Over Facts: Embracing an Emotions-First Narrative Strategy — including a report, emotions-first framework and workbook.

Among voters w/ the highest double negative scores, nearly 60% are between the ages of 18 & 34. In this clip from IFPG's webinar, Benjy Messner of New River Strategies discusses one of the most striking findings from IFPG's new double negative model. innovatingforpublicgood.org/research-and...

Join us on October 1 at 12 p.m. ET for the launch of Feelings Over Facts: Embracing an Emotions-First Narrative Strategy. The report and toolkit explore why fact-based messaging fails, what engages the emotional brain, and how to create narratives that get acted on. us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

What happens when voters lose faith in both parties? In this clip, IFPG founder @pagegardner.bsky.social explains the rise of "double haters" - voters with negative views of both parties who have helped shape close elections for nearly a decade. 👇

How can organizations counter misinformation ahead of the 2026 midterms? In this clip, @timothychambers.net shares key findings from "Countering Disinformation: Strategies for 2026 and Beyond," a new report from IFPG & @deweysquare.bsky.social. www.psgconsulting.com/videos/v/cou...