Findings on whether voters like or dislike targeted campaign messages have been contradictory. I argue that voters react differently depending on how precisely the targeted messages are tailored to them, and tailoring can potentially become “too much.” I corroborate this claim with the results of a factorial survey experiment among a representative sample of the German voting population ( N = 3,217), which was conducted in the summer of 2021. Taking a novel approach, I measured the effects of close political targeting by asking respondents to rate campaign messages with varying degrees of tailoring. The analysis revealed a backlash effect, which is especially pronounced by men getting ads tailored to their gender. Voters appreciate messages that are moderately tailored to them but dislike highly tailored messages. This holds both for implicitly tailored messages and those that explicitly acknowledge the use of personal data. These results indicate that voters seem to recognize excessively tailored messages and manipulating them is difficult. These findings have important implications for the modern election campaigning’s effects on political behavior and its regulation.

中文翻译：

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剪裁多少算太多？选民对高度定制的竞选信息的强烈反对


关于选民是否喜欢或不喜欢有针对性的竞选信息的调查结果是相互矛盾的。我认为，选民的反应会有所不同，具体取决于目标信息为他们量身定制的精确程度，而定制可能会变得“太多”。我用 2021 年夏天在德国选民代表性样本 (N = 3,217) 中进行的阶乘调查实验的结果证实了这一说法。我采用了一种新颖的方法，通过以下方法测量了密切政治目标的影响：要求受访者对经过不同程度定制的竞选信息进行评分。分析揭示了一种反弹效应，这种效应在男性收到针对其性别的广告时尤其明显。选民喜欢为他们量身定制的信息，但不喜欢高度定制的信息。这对于隐式定制的消息和明确承认使用个人数据的消息都适用。这些结果表明，选民似乎认识到过度定制的信息，并且很难操纵它们。这些发现对于现代竞选活动对政治行为及其监管的影响具有重要意义。