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Published on: September 28, 2018
Headlines win elections: Mere exposure to fictitious news media alters voting behavior
Roland Pfister1,2,3, Katharina A Schwarz3, Patricia Holzmann3
1General Psychology, Trier University, Trier, Germany.
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.
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