GOP Primary Dynamics Experiment-Treatment Details

Respondents were randomly assigned to one of three* conditions:

Control Condition Respondents watched commercial, non-political video content followed by a survey.
Gingrich Condition Respondents watched, in random order, a positive Gingrich ad, a negative Gingrich ad, a positive Perry ad, and a negative Perry ad followed by a survey.
Romney Condition Respondents watched, in random order, a positive Romney ad, a negative Romney ad, a positive Perry ad, and a negative Perry ad followed by a survey.

*Note: We randomly rotated in one of five positive Perry clips to determine if any particular ad seems more or less effective. Analysis of these impacts creates 11 conditions (Control, 5 Perry Ads*Romney Ads, 5 Perry Ads*Gingrich Ads). For the purpose of this analysis, the relative impact of these individual Perry ads is not addressed. Analysis of these positive Perry ads will follow shortly.

The survey instrument was otherwise identical, and the total length of the four ads in each condition ran three to four minutes. Our online platform also allowed us to use images of each candidate throughout the survey to facilitate the task.

Newt Gingrich Treatments

Note: This ad is substantially longer than the other negative ads due to the limited material available at the time the experiment was developed. The video auto-starts thirty seconds into the ad, and runs two minutes from that point.

Note: This ad is substantially longer than the other positive ads due to the limited material available at the time the experiment was developed. The video runs one minute long.