Recent Articles in the Field of Public Opinion Research

Abstract

In this section, the International Journal of Public Opinion Research reviews articles that have recently been published in peer-refereed journals and which broadly relate to the field of public opinion. The intention is not to give an exhaustive overview of a given study but rather to alert our readers to interesting ideas and research in our field. This article considers the “third-person effect” (in which respondents believe that the public in general is more susceptible to the effects of the media than they are themselves), and explores its implications for voter behavior when applied to political advertising. A judgment-task experiment was conducted with 340 university students, showing them television advertisements from the 2004 US Presidential election campaign, which found a significant third-party effect and a linear association between the third-person effect and likelihood of voting, but no association between the third-person effect and choice of candidate. The authors suggest that the third-person effect predicts likelihood of voting because those who believe that others less knowledgeable or sophisticated than themselves are influenced unduly by political advertising will attempt to compensate for this by voting, as well as by other political action.