Political Advertising on Social Media in the 2012 Presidential Election: Exploring the Perceptual and Behavioral Components of the Third-Person Effect

This study explores the perceived effects of political ads that appeared on social media in the 2012 presidential campaign from a third-person effect perspective. Results of a survey using a probability sample of 496 college students indicated that the respondents tend to believe that political ads on social media have a greater influence on others than on themselves. However, the more desirable they viewed such ads, the more they admitted the ads to having influenced themselves. Finally, third-person perception of political ads on social media was found to be a positive predictor of engagement in promotional social media behavior after the influences of demographics, social media use, and political attitudes were taken into consideration.