Persuasive Propaganda during the 2015 Argentine Ballotage
46 Pages Posted: 27 Sep 2019 Last revised: 21 Apr 2021
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Persuasive Propaganda during the 2015 Argentine Ballotage
Persuasive Propaganda During the 2015 Argentine Ballotage
Date Written: September 18, 2019
Abstract
We study a propaganda campaign sponsored by the government against the main political challenger in the days preceding the 2015 Argentine runoff presidential election. Subjects in the treatment group watched an “ad” initially aired during soccer transmissions that was part of this campaign and were then asked about their political views. Relative to subjects in the control group, their declared preference for the challenger drops by 6.5 percentage points. We find no effects of the three types of defenses employed by the challenger (a positive message unrelated to the “ad”, an answer to the accusations in the “ad”, and a counter-attack). The propaganda effect is driven by women.
Keywords: Propaganda, Persuasion, Voting
JEL Classification: D72, P48
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation