2020 Election
Academic Research
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Working Paper
The Effect of Deactivating Facebook and Instagram on Users’ Emotional State
Working Paper, April 2025
We estimate the effect of social media deactivation on users’ emotional state in two large randomized experiments before the 2020 U.S. election. People who deactivated Facebook for the six weeks before the election reported a 0.060 standard deviation improvement in an index of happiness, depression, and anxiety, relative to controls who deactivated for just the first of those six weeks. People who deactivated Instagram for those six weeks reported a 0.041 standard deviation improvement relative to controls. Exploratory analysis suggests the Facebook effect is driven by people over 35, while the Instagram effect is driven by women under 25.
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Working Paper
The Effects of Political Advertising on Facebook and Instagram Before the 2020 US Election
Working Paper, May 2025
We study the effects of social media political advertising by randomizing subsets of 36,906 Facebook users and 25,925 Instagram users to have political ads removed from their news feeds for six weeks before the 2020 US presidential election. We show that most presidential ads were targeted toward parties’ own supporters and that fundraising ads were most common. On both Facebook and Instagram, we found no detectable effects of removing political ads on political knowledge, polarization, perceived legitimacy of the election, political participation (including campaign contributions), candidate favorability, and turnout. This was true overall and for both Democrats and Republicans separately.
Reports & Analysis
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Analysis
Who Has a Policy that Would Benefit You? More Voters Say Trump.
National survey data from the 2016, 2020, and 2024 elections shed light on how candidates' campaign strategies impact voter policy recall.
November 2, 2024
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Analysis
Republicans Are Increasingly Sharing Misinformation
Republican candidates have dramatically increased how much they share from unreliable sources in just two years.
August 29, 2022
News & Commentary
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News
Researchers Follow the Money to Illuminate US House Candidates’ Ideological Movement
New social media study finds safe incumbents move from primary extremes to general-election center when facing well-funded primary challenger
March 17, 2025
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News
2024 Year in Review: Our Research & Impact
A look at our top articles, events, and more from the past year.
December 18, 2024