Trump Voters and Partisan News: A Survey Experiment of Republicans and Media Frames

We conduct a survey experiment using mock news articles that vary in ideological predisposition and in the level of support for Donald Trump’s efforts to combat the Covid pandemic, targeting self-reported Republicans. We find evidence that in-party news can influence voting behavior and that neutral news can reduce opposition to out-party members. We did not find evidence that news consumers are more influenced by costly reporting. Instead, we find that Republican news consumers reduce their trust in the national news media when a conservative outlet is critical of Trump.

Collection Date(s):  10/11/2021 – 1/31/2022

Universe:  Nationally representative sample of American self-reported Republicans and Independents

Data Type(s):   survey data

Collection Notes:  Survey was created using Qualtrics. Survey was administered through Prolific to their curated subject pool. Prolific made the survey available to their subjects such that they provided a nationally representative sample on many demographic categories. We limited recruitment to only self-described Republicans or Independents.

Sampling:   Survey was administered through Prolific to their curated subject pool. Prolific made the survey available to their subjects such that they provided a nationally representative sample on many demographic categories

Data Source:    Prolific sample

Collection Mode:  web-based survey

Unit  of Observation:   Individuals

Geographic Unit:  United States