Why Obama Is Obsessed With Your Name

Mind games.

The Obama Campaign Just Sent Out Millions of Emails Like This

People Were Taken Aback

The Explanation? Science!

The semi-stalkerish emails may be prompting exclamations across Twitter, but they’re part of a calculated effort to drive voter registration and turnout, rooted in a new science of politics.

Sasha Issenberg, the author of The Victory Lab: The Secret Science of Winning Campaigns explained to BuzzFeed that the campaign is trying an old trick from behavioral psychology research.

The theory: You’re more likely to take an action if you think other people like you are also doing it.

The emails are “part of a general behavioral-psych-informed approach to motivating good behavior by telling people how pervasive it is among their peers,” said Issenberg in an email. “Probably most impressive among those who have more common names than Zeke or Sasha.”