Social Media and Politics Political Persuasion and the Effects of Targeted Social Media Ads, with Dr. Alexander Coppock
Sep 24, 2023
Dr. Alexander Coppock, Associate Professor of Political Science at Yale University, shares his research on political persuasion and the effects of targeted social media ads. Topics discussed include the minimal impact of digital political ads, the logic and importance of randomized experiments, the use of persuasive information in politics, and the effectiveness of persuasion vs mobilization in political campaigns.
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Persuasion in Parallel
- Persuasion often occurs in parallel.
- People with different initial views update their opinions in the same direction after encountering information, but maintain the same relative distance between each other.
Motivated Reasoning Study
- A 1979 study by Lord, Ross, and Lepper presented biased evidence for motivated reasoning.
- Their study lacked a control group and relied on self-reported attitude change, leading to flawed conclusions.
Randomization's Impact
- Replicating the 1979 study with proper randomization revealed opposite results.
- Exposure to persuasive information shifted opinions in the direction of the information, regardless of initial views.