“This Unfavorable Poll Result for My Candidate Doesn’t Affect Me but Others”: Third-Person Perception in Election Poll Coverage1

Abstract

The third-person perception phenomenon can consistently be found in opinion poll news, but it remains unknown what determines the degree of the third-person perception (TPP) about specific election poll news. We investigated how respondents’ preferred candidate’s status in the poll affects the perceived impact of polling news on both themselves (PMI1) and on others (PMI3) as well as TPP (PMI3 – PMI1). We also examined the effect of subjective political knowledge and the perceived level of political knowledge of others on TPP. An online experiment was conducted in the context of a gubernatorial election in South Korea, in which the leading candidate in the poll and the question order (self-question first vs. other-question first) were manipulated. The results indicated that PMI1 and PMI3 were greater when the respondent’s preferred candidate was leading in the poll. TPP did not differ depending on subjective knowledge, but it was greater when the others were non-experts (vs. experts). Lastly, question order was found to be a method factor that affected both PMI1 and PMI3. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed. © 2023, Center for Asian Public Opinion Research and Collaboration Initiative. All rights reserved.