Mere Exposure or Priming? Experimental Evidence on the Impact of Leading Politicians on Vote Decisions

• In Event: Candidate Evaluations & Voter Competence

Brief Overview

An experiment during the 2025 Bundestag campaign tests whether leading politicians influence vote choice through mere presence or priming. Results support the priming hypothesis, with additional validation from a small eye-tracking sample.

Authors

• Susumu Shikano, University of Konstanz

• Anna Werner, University of Konstanz