How persuasive are political campaigns? Not one bit

Political campaigns invest significant resources in attempts to persuade voters to pick one candidate over a competitor from a rival party, but the impact of these efforts appears to be negligible at best.

Electoral campaigning is a business worth billions of dollars, but new research has found that attempts to persuade voters to choose one candidate over a rival from another party may almost be worthless.

David Broockman, Assistant Professor/Political Economy, Stanford Graduate School of Business(left) and Joshua Kalla Ph.D. student in Political Science, University of California(right)

"The best estimate for the persuasive effects of campaign contact and advertising – such as mail, phone calls, and canvassing – on Americans' candidate choices, in general elections, is zero," David Broockman, an Assistant Professor/Political Economy at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and Joshua Kalla,...

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