Headlines win elections: Mere exposure to fictitious news media alters voting behavior

Roland Pfister, Katharina A Schwarz, Patricia Holzmann, Moritz Reis, Kumar Yogeeswaran and Wilfried Kunde

PLOS ONE, 2023, vol. 18, issue 8, 1-14

Abstract: Repeatedly encountering a stimulus biases the observer’s affective response and evaluation of the stimuli. Here we provide evidence for a causal link between mere exposure to fictitious news reports and subsequent voting behavior. In four pre-registered online experiments, participants browsed through newspaper webpages and were tacitly exposed to names of fictitious politicians. Exposure predicted voting behavior in a subsequent mock election, with a consistent preference for frequent over infrequent names, except when news items were decidedly negative. Follow-up analyses indicated that mere media presence fuels implicit personality theories regarding a candidate’s vigor in political contexts. News outlets should therefore be mindful to cover political candidates as evenly as possible.

Date: 2023
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0289341

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0289341

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