Effectiveness of celebrity endorsement of political candidates

I examined the effects of celebrity endorsement of political candidates, drawing on third-person effect theory, social identification theory, and political efficacy theory. Participants were 283 students at an American university who took part in a web-based survey that explored attitudes using actual presidential candidates and real celebrities. Study findings suggest that people view such endorsements as having no impact on their own voting behavior yet influencing that of others by encouraging them to vote for the endorsed candidate. In addition, people positively evaluate the endorsed political candidate when they hold a high level of identification with the celebrity endorser and are likely to vote for the candidate. Lastly, whereas political efficacy does influence people’s intention to vote, it does not appear to influence their evaluation of the candidate. Limitations of the study and future research are discussed.