The small effects of political advertising are small regardless of context, message, sender, or receiver: Evidence from 59 real-time randomized experiments
Coppock, Hill and Vavreck ask whether small average effects of persuasive messages hide larger effects in particular circumstances. They repeated an experiment weekly in real time using campaign advertisements from a United States presidential election year, testing dozens of advertisements in dozens of experiments on tens of thousands of people. They looked at differences by sender, receiver, content and context. Average effects on candidate favourability and vote were small, and they did not mask substantial variation even where theory suggests it should appear.
Coppock, Hill and Vavreck ask whether small average effects of persuasive messages hide larger effects in particular circumstances. They repeated an experiment weekly in real time using campaign advertisements from a United States presidential election year, testing dozens of advertisements in dozens of experiments on tens of thousands of people. They looked at differences by sender, receiver, content and context. Average effects on candidate favourability and vote were small, and they did not mask substantial variation even where theory suggests it should appear.
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Coppock, A., Hill, S. J., & Vavreck, L. (2020). The small effects of political advertising are small regardless of context, message, sender, or receiver: Evidence from 59 real-time randomized experiments. Science Advances, 6(36). doi:10.1126/sciadv.abc4046.