Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-cjp7w Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-22T08:02:10.917Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

“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.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

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

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Broockman, David E., Kalla, Joshua L., and Sekhon, Jasjeet S.. 2017. “The Design of Field Experiments with Survey Outcomes: A Framework for Selecting More Efficient, Robust, and Ethical Designs.” Political Analysis 25 (4): 435–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooper, Christopher A., and Nownes, Anthony J.. 2004. “Money Well Spent? An Experimental Investigation of the Effects of Advertorials on Citizen Opinion.” American Politics Research 32 (5): 546–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coppock, Alexander, and Green, Donald P.. 2021. “Do Belief Systems Exhibit Dynamic Constraint?” Journal of Politics 25 (2): 159–85.Google Scholar
Falk, Erika, Grizard, Erin, and McDonald, Gordon. 2005. “Legislative Issue Advertising in the 108th Congress.” The Annenberg Public Policy Center Report Series 47.Google Scholar
Gerber, Alan S., Gimpel, James G., Green, Donald P., and Shaw, Daron R.. 2011. “How Large and Long-Lasting Are the Persuasive Effects of Televised Campaign Ads? Results from a Randomized Field Experiment.” American Political Science Review 105 (1): 135–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilens, Martin, and Page, Benjamin I.. 2014. “Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens.” Perspectives on Politics 12 (3): 564–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, Richard L., and Reynolds, Molly E.. 2012. “Targeted Issue Advertising and Legislative Strategy: The Inside Ends of Outside Lobbying.” The Journal of Politics 74 (3): 888–902.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hill, Seth J., Lo, James, Vavreck, Lynn, and Zaller, John. 2013. “How Quickly We Forget: The Duration of Persuasion Effects from Mass Communication.” Political Communication 30 (4): 521–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huber, Gregory A., and Arceneaux, Kevin. 2007. “Identifying the Persuasive Effects of Presidential Advertising.” American Journal of Political Science 51 (4): 957–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jacobson, Gary C. 2015. “How Do Campaigns Matter?” Annual Review of Political Science 18: 31–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kalla, Joshua L., and Broockman, David E.. 2018. “The Minimal Persuasive Effects of Campaign Contact in General Elections: Evidence from 49 Field Experiments.” American Political Science Review 112 (1): 148–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kalla, Joshua L., and Broockman, David E.. 2020. “Reducing Exclusionary Attitudes through Interpersonal Conversation: Evidence from Three Field Experiments.” American Political Science Review 114 (2): 410–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kalla, Joshua L., and Broockman, David. 2021. “Replication Data for: ‘Outside Lobbying’ over the Airwaves: A Randomized Field Experiment on Televised Issue Ads.” Harvard Dataverse. Dataset. https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/VELEMB.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kollman, Ken. 1998. Outside Lobbying: Public Opinion and Interest Group Strategies. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ridout, Travis N., Fowler, Erika Franklin, and Franz, Michael M.. 2021. “Spending Fast and Furious: Political Advertising in 2020.” The Forum 18 (4): 465–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spenkuch, Jörg L., and Toniatti, David. 2018. “Political Advertising and Election Results.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 133 (4): 1981–2036.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zaller, John R. 1992. The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: Link

Kalla and Broockman Dataset

Dataset

https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/VELEMB
Link
Supplementary material: PDF

Kalla and Broockman supplementary material

Kalla and Broockman supplementary material

Download Kalla and Broockman supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 1.1 MB
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.