UCLA professor studies real-time effect of presidential campaign ads

Political science professor Lynn Vavreck said she enjoys the challenge that comes with studying political advertising and campaigns.

“I really like taking my time, digging into a puzzle and trying to sort through the data to find patterns, so we can understand how people make political choices,” Vavreck said.

Vavreck and John Geer, the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of Political Science at Vanderbilt University, are collaborating on a project that aims to study the effectiveness of political advertisements leading up to the 2016 presidential race. The website, called SpotCheck, gives weekly surveys to 1,000 random participants to analyze their reactions to political advertisements.