Science University Research Symposium (SURS)

Retention in Action: Impact of Media Priming on Voter Behavior

Publication Date

Fall 11-11-2024

College

Sciences and Mathematics, College of

Department

Psychological Science, Department of

SURS Faculty Advisor

Michael Oliver

Presentation Type

Metadata Only

Abstract

Political infographics have been proven to be an effective tool for influencing voter behaviors. Prior research finds that social media, being the primary source of political news for young people, is influential in decision-making regarding the content of infographics. The study involves a voter priming experiment, where 42 college students completed a Qualtrics survey designed to assess how descriptive infographics influence voting behavior. Eligible participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups of infographics: positive, negative, and neutral. Participants responded to questions relating to party affiliation and voting rationale. Following the questionnaire, participants completed a free recall task to measure their retention of information presented in the infographics. A randomly assigned group of participants ranked their likelihood of voting immediately after priming, while a separate group received an email with an additional follow-up survey assessing long-term priming. We expect that participants who are primed with negative images are less inclined to vote and have poorer retention for presented images. We expect that participants who are presented with positive infographics will be more inclined to vote and have better retention of the images. The anticipated results will contribute to broader research on the importance of media-affective images on civil responsibilities.

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS