The Noisy Neighbor Effect: How Negative Advertising in One State Influences Viewers Next Door

Abstract

Recent elections at all levels of government have been marked by unprecedented levels of political advertising, leaving voters to decipher more information than ever before eventually casting their ballots. How competent are voters at sorting through all of it and shaping their opinions based on relevant information? I exploit variations in state-election law and the timing of gubernatorial races to test whether seemingly irrelevant information can shape voter attitudes. I find that, all else equal, those living in multi-state media markets who were exposed to negative television ads for a gubernatorial race taking place in a neighboring state were more disapproving of their own governors than other residents of their state. In a crowded landscape of political information, the ability of voters to sift through and accurately process political messaging is vital to the functioning of democracy. This result call that ability into question and raise new implications for the regulation of political advertising in American elections.