3RD-PERSON EFFECTS AND THE DIFFERENTIAL IMPACT IN NEGATIVE POLITICAL ADVERTISING

People often assume that, because of their special knowledge, others will be influenced by mass media messages while they remain relatively untouched. This experiment uses negative political advertisements to find that when subjects saw their own candidates attacked, they reported they were not much influenced, but they said others would be. Conversely, when they saw an attack on a candidate they disliked, they reported themselves to be influenced but were less likely to think others would be. These trends worked more for negative advertising about Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis than those about the Republican winner George Bush.