AP Research - Inquiry Proposal Form

1. State your research question (and/or project goal) in full.

PS: ​There is a problem in how many resources political candidates pour into advertisements for their campaigns. Despite
political theory stating that these advertisements should be doubtlessly beneficial to a candidate, all of these ads only influence
their viewers on a minuscule scale. Alexander Coppock’s recent study of ads from the 2016 presidential election found that
overall, voters described feeling little to no sway in their partisanship, even after 59 different experiments, testing 34,000 people
with 49 different advertisements. This problem has negatively impacted candidates because the millions of dollars they spend on
advertising is, seemingly, going to waste. A possible cause of this problem is voters’ predisposition to one political party or
another. Perhaps a study which investigates voters swayed by repeating ads for a certain candidate in a fake presidential election
(to remove bias) could help explore which types of ads really work better than others while removing party and policy biases.

RQ:​ Which of the typical rhetorical strategies in modern American political advertisements are the most effective in
influencing a presidential candidate's image among young, new, and prospective voters in the Denver area?

2. List three key studies that have informed your understanding of the scholarly conversation surrounding your topic.

- Coppock, A., Hill, S. J., & Vavreck, L. (2020). The small effects of political advertising are small regardless of
context, message, sender, or receiver: Evidence from 59 real-time randomized experiments. Science Advances,
6(36), 1–6. https://doi-org.jeffcolibrary.idm.oclc.org/10.1126/sciadv.abc4046

- Tavris, E. (2020). The Role of Cognitive Dissonance in the Pandemic. Retrieved November 02, 2020, from
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/07/role-cognitive-dissonance-pandemic/614074/?fbclid=IwAR
1MYZeg2ujJPonk7czJ0Sm6--AmMNGFKsB3J1EJnWVeIgCcmmv2vN_y4wA

- Christ, W. G., & Thorson, E. (1994). Do attitudes toward political advertising affect information processing of
televised political.. ​Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media,​ ​38(​ 3), 251.
https://doi-org.jeffcolibrary.idm.oclc.org/10.1080/08838159409364264

3. Identify the gap addressed by your proposed research, and explain how the gap is situated into the scholarly conversation.
Where possible, provide sources to justify the gap your proposed research is addressing.

The gap in my proposed research lies in the fact that none of the studies discussing the effectiveness of the rhetorical
strategies of political advertisements that I’ve come across have run trials where participants rank the effectiveness of ads without
any political bias inherent. Because almost every American has an ideal set of policies and a preferred presidential candidate, no
study discussing the effectiveness of the rhetoric within political advertising using real political ads can be truly unbiased and,
therefore, is inherently flawed. My proposed study would remove all references to real-life policies, parties, and political figures in
order to simply present the rhetoric of the advertisement so that I may truly assess the effectiveness and nuance of each
technique.

4. Describe your research methodology (process) and defend its alignment (approach, design, method) with your research
question.

For my research process, I will write several transcripts of fake, unbiased presidential-election style advertisements in the
formats of common ads in real life, sticking as close to the general flow and vocabulary of these advertisements as possible
without describing any existing American party, candidate, or policy. I will then compose a questionnaire and ask subjects to read
these transcripts and rank each “candidate’s” appeal on a numerical scale after reading each one, which will inform me of the
effectiveness of the advertisement. My data will be quantitative and non-experimental as it is only a survey.
 AP Research - Inquiry Proposal Form
5. Identify additional approval processes (select Y or N):
Y​/N​ Human subjects [requires additional IRB review and approval if student wants to publish and/or publicly present]
Y/​N​ Animal subjects [requires additional review or approval by school or district processes]
Y/​N​ Harmful microorganisms [requires additional review or approval by school or district processes]
Y/​N​ Hazardous materials [requires additional review or approval by school or district processes]
Y/N​ No additional review or approvals required

6. Briefly explain how your proposed methods will comply with the ethical issues in research categories (protection from harm,
volun-
tary and informed participation, right to privacy, and honesty with professional colleagues) discussed by Leedy (2015, p.120).

I will be the only one receiving, handling, and reading my subjects’ questionnaires. Their name will not appear on the
survey and their information will be anonymous (if possible) and will not be shared with anyone else. I will inform my subjects of
exactly what they are about to read and reflect upon in a heading above the transcripts and questions. I will make no effort to
deliberately mislead or hide information from my professional colleagues.

7. Describe the data (or additional scholarly work) you plan on generating via the above method(s) to answer your proposed
research question (or achieve your project goal) and why you believe it will appropriately address your research question/ project
goal.

I will compare subjects’ responses to each transcript to determine its overall level of persuasiveness among young voters.

8. List any equipment, resources, and permissions (IRB, partner organization(s), administrators, etc.) needed to collect data or
information for your research.

I will require either the materials to put together questionnaire packets or access to an online survey platform through
which I can provide my questionnaire. I will need access to willing participants for my survey and someone, such as a member of
the school staff, to help with the process of electronic survey distribution. Since I will be providing my survey to human subjects, I
will need IRB review and approval.

9. Describe any anticipated logistical and/or personnel challenges for your research project.

Reaching out to enough subjects for the study to be meaningful during this pandemic may prove a challenge, but I’m sure
I can contact a member of the school’s staff who can help send it out to the student population if I end up choosing to compose my
survey digitally.

10. Discuss the anticipated value and/or broader implications of your research project.

My study’s results will be inherently generalized. It will, however, be beneficial to candidates who use political advertising
during their campaigns, ​despite​ its breadth, because it will discuss, on average, which rhetorical approaches are the most
effective with young, beginner voters in the Denver area.

Teacher’s Approval (signature): ___________________________________

Teacher’s feedback: