@article {604427, title = {Paths of Recruitment: Rational Social Prospecting in Petition Canvassing}, journal = {American Journal of Political Science}, volume = {62}, number = {1}, year = {2018}, pages = {192-209}, abstract = {Petition canvassers are political recruiters. Building upon the rational prospector model, we theorize that rational recruiting strategies are dynamic (Bayesian and time-conscious), spatial (constrained by geography), and social (conditioned on relations between canvasser and prospect). Our theory predicts that canvassers will exhibit homophily in their canvassing preferences and will alternate between {\textquotedblleft}door-to-door{\textquotedblright} and {\textquotedblleft}attractor{\textquotedblright} (working in a central location) strategies based upon systematic geographical variation. They will adjust their strategies midstream (mid-petition) based upon experience. Introducing methods to analyze canvassing data, we test these hypotheses on geocoded signatory lists from two petition drives{\textemdash}a 2005{\textendash}6 anti{\textendash}Iraq War initiative in Wisconsin and an 1839 antislavery campaign in New York City. Canvassers in these campaigns exhibited homophily to the point of following geographically and politically {\textquotedblleft}inefficient{\textquotedblright} paths. In the aggregate, these patterns may exacerbate political inequality, limiting political involvement of the poorer and less educated.}, url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ajps.12305}, author = {Nall C, Schneer B, Carpenter D} }