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“Outside Lobbying” over the Airwaves: A Randomized Field Experiment on Televised Issue Ads

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2021

JOSHUA L. KALLA Open the ORCID record for JOSHUA L. KALLA [Opens in a new window]  and
DAVID E. BROOCKMAN Open the ORCID record for DAVID E. BROOCKMAN [Opens in a new window]
JOSHUA L. KALLA*
Affiliation:
Yale University, United States
DAVID E. BROOCKMAN*
Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley, United States
*
Joshua L. Kalla, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science and Department of Statistics and Data Science, Yale University, United States, josh.kalla@yale.edu.
David E. Broockman, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley, United States, dbroockman@berkeley.edu.
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Abstract

We present the first field experiment on how organized interest groups’ television ads affect issue opinions. We randomized 31,404 voters to three weeks of interest group ads about either immigration or transgender nondiscrimination. We then randomly assigned voters to receive ostensibly unrelated surveys either while the ads aired, one day after they stopped, or three days afterwards. Voters recalled the ads, but three ads had a minimal influence on public opinion, whereas a fourth’s effects decayed within one day. However, voters remembered a fact from one ad. Our results suggest issue ads can affect public opinion but that not every ad persuades and that persuasive effects decay. Despite the vast sums spent on television ads, our results are the first field experiment on their persuasive power on issues, shedding light on the mechanisms underpinning—and limits on—both televised persuasion and interest group influence.

Type
Letter
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 116 , Issue 3 , August 2022 , pp. 1126 - 1132
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the American Political Science Association

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References

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