Social Lobbying

Abstract

We theorize that direct social lobbying—the meeting of a lobbyist and public official outside of a formal office—persuades officials to support publicly policies favored by interest groups. Social lobbying influences public officials because the social environment allows for greater receptivity to interest group messages. A randomized field experiment was conducted by a lobbying firm in a US state legislature. Legislators randomly assigned to be socially lobbied more frequently expressed public support for the interest group’s preferred policy than did legislators lobbied in their offices or not contacted by the lobbyist. In addition, an original survey of registered lobbyists was conducted in 10 US states demonstrating that social lobbying regularly occurs. Political elites are influenced by the social environment; interest group direct lobbying is influential when conducted in places not easily observed by the public.