Impact of Advocacy Ads on Voter Ambivalence, Attitudes, and Intentions

Abstract

Since Citizens United, elections have witnessed an increasing number of candidate-focused advocacy ads (that are not sponsored by candidates). The literature addressing the effects of the increase in advocacy ads has largely focused on their financial dominance, leaving unclear the potential impact that such advocacy ads have on the decision-making processes of voters. In this research, we employ the framework of attitudinal ambivalence to explore experimentally the psychological influences of campaign ads by comparing the impact of candidate-sponsored and advocacy ads on viewers. Based on two studies, we find evidence that viewers perceive and evaluate campaign-related advocacy ads in much the same way as candidate-sponsored ads. However, we find evidence that PAC-sponsored ads generate higher levels of ambivalence as compared to candidate ads, which renders the measured link between attitudes and voting unpredictable.