Ads of candidates voters oppose ignored.

• Position: YOUR LIFE - Attention of viewers on tv political ads - Brief article

Partisan viewers react strongly to television advertisements featuring their favored candidates, but barely respond to ads showing the rival candidate, according to a study published in the journal Communication Research. In comparison, people who do not favor one candidate over the other show similar physiological response patterns and intensity to ads for both individuals seeking office. This suggests that partisan participants really are not paying attention to the ads featuring the candidate they oppose even as they watch them, indicates Zheng Wang, lead author of the study.

"If people are exposed to information in ads regarding a candidate they oppose, they respond by basically tuning out. A lot of research has shown that, behaviorally, we tend to selectively expose ourselves to information that reinforces our existing opinions, but this study further suggests that, even when exposed to information, our attention to what is presented is highly selective."

The study involved participants hooked up with electrodes...