Research
Rigorous research for a stronger movement
We believe good research makes everyone in the movement stronger. That’s why we run large-scale experiments, partner with academics, and work closely with campaigners to understand what really moves the dial.
In 2024, we ran the largest political Randomised Control Trial in UK history, tested hyperlocal messaging at scale, and used AI to analyse how people talk about politics online – producing insights that helped shape campaign strategy across the ecosystem.
Our research is designed to be practical and shareable. Whether it’s testing new tactics or exploring how new tech can be used ethically, our goal is simple: generate evidence that helps campaigners win – and share what we learn, so no one has to start from scratch.
Showcase
The ninth entry of our Academic Series asked a deceptively simple question: how did Labour secure one of the largest post-war majorities in 2024 while winning a historically low share of the vote for a governing party? Professor Charles Pattie walked us through the mechanics of First Past the Post (FPTP) to explain why this […]
- Who's this helpful for: Campaigners, Researchers
Test summary This report presents the findings from an A/B test of Facebook advertisements for a candidate with immigrant background in a local election campaign. The experiment tested two messaging approaches: Version 1 (no mention of immigrant background) versus Version 2 (explicit mention of immigrant background). The test aimed to determine which messaging strategy would […]
- Who's this helpful for: Campaigners, Researchers
Test Summary From March to April 2025 we worked with a civil society organisation focused on migrant empowerment on two Facebook ad campaigns aimed at mobilising and turning out migrant voters in a UK city ahead of the 1st of May local election. One of them observed the performance of a register to vote call […]
- Who's this helpful for: Campaigners, Researchers
- Research
- What makes someone scan a QR code?
Selected survey responses and their location within 1km of a proposed site from the first test conducted in February 2024, a total of 66 responses were recorded out of 900 leaflets dropped. The results indicate that people living within 400 meters of a mentioned issue were much more likely to scan a QR code to […]
- Who's this helpful for: Campaigners
- Who's this helpful for: Campaigners, Members of parliament
For the latest entry in our Academic Series we welcomed Dr. Stephanie Luke, Lecturer in Politics at Cardiff University, whose research focuses on how political parties adapt their strategies in the face of new challenges. Her talk, titled When Attack Strategies Backfire Dr. Luke’s research looked closely at how this competition played out in the […]
- Who's this helpful for: Campaigners, Journalists, Members of parliament, Researchers
In the latest instalment of Campaign Lab’s Academic Series, Dr Emmanuel Mahieux presented intriguing research exploring a provocative question: can we predict voters’ intentions using brainwave activity?Traditional political campaigns rely heavily on explicit measures such as polls and surveys to gauge voter intentions. However, these tools can often fall short, particularly among undecided voters who […]
- Who's this helpful for: Campaigners, Researchers, Technologists
Confronting the radical right starts with understanding why people vote for them in the first place. Explanations have often relied on economic background, education, and other surface-level factors, most of these failing, however, to predict radical right vote. In this blog we uncover the deeper motivations for this political leaning, which will help progressives first […]
- Who's this helpful for: Campaigners, Researchers, Volunteers
At the latest event in Campaign Lab’s academic series, we were joined by Dr. John Bryden, a researcher working at the intersection of politics, social science, and machine learning. With a background in software development and computational biology, Dr. Bryden led research at Indiana University’s Observatory on Social Media, where he studied how information and […]
- Who's this helpful for: Campaigners, Researchers, Volunteers
As part of Campaign Lab’s academic series, we recently hosted a talk by Lennard Metson, PhD candidate at the London School of Economics and a researcher at Campaign Lab. In this fascinating and practical session, Lennard shared findings from a recent field experiment he ran in collaboration with Campaign Lab, LSE, and a UK pressure […]
- Who's this helpful for: Campaigners, Researchers, Volunteers