Commercial Advertising and Political Attitudes: Experimental Evidence

• In Event: Political Advertising

Abstract

While the volume of non-political, commercial advertising greatly exceeds that of political advertising, political scientists have in practice assumed that only political ads are capable of changing political attitudes. Evidence from social psychology, however, indicates that ads for luxury goods and other items can change people’s views about social issues. In this paper, I present results from two experiments that make clear that commercial advertising can wield influence over important political attitudes. In the first experiment, exposure to advertisements for Apple’s iPhone changed subjects’ views toward tax progressivity. In the second, exposure to ads for a Google smartphone affected attitudes about government spending. Possible mechanisms, including system justification theory and symbolic racism, are discussed. The experiments challenge common assumptions about the kinds of advertisements that affects politics and offer novel insight into the formation of political attitudes.

Author

• Ethan Porter, George Washington University