The effects of political advertising on Facebook and Instagram before the 2020 US election

Hunt Allcott; Matthew Gentzkow; Ro’ee Levy; Adriana Crespo-Tenorio; Natasha Dumas; Winter Mason; Devra Moehler; Pablo Barberá; Taylor Brown; Juan Carlos Cisneros; Drew Dimmery; Deen Freelon; Sandra González-Bailón; Andrew M. Guess; Young Mie Kim; David Lazer; Neil Malhotra; Sameer Nair-Desai; Brendan Nyhan; Ana Carolina Paixao de Queiroz; Jennifer Pan; Jaime Settle; Emily Thorson; Rebekah Tromble; Carlos Velasco Rivera; Benjamin Wittenbrink; Magdalena Wojcieszak; Shiqi Yang; Saam Zahedian; Annie Franco; Chad Kiewiet de Jonge; Natalie Jomini Stroud; Joshua A. Tucker

doi:10.1038/s41562-025-02328-w

The effects of political advertising on Facebook and Instagram before the 2020 US election

Hunt Allcott
, Matthew Gentzkow
, Ro’ee Levy
, Adriana Crespo-Tenorio
, Natasha Dumas
, Winter Mason
, Devra Moehler
, Pablo Barberá
, Taylor Brown
, Juan Carlos Cisneros
, Drew Dimmery
, Deen Freelon
, Sandra González-Bailón
, Andrew M. Guess
, Young Mie Kim
, David Lazer
, Neil Malhotra
, Sameer Nair-Desai
, Brendan Nyhan
, Ana Carolina Paixao de Queiroz

Jennifer Pan, Jaime Settle, Emily Thorson, Rebekah Tromble, Carlos Velasco Rivera, Benjamin Wittenbrink, Magdalena Wojcieszak, Shiqi Yang, Saam Zahedian, Annie Franco, Chad Kiewiet de Jonge, Natalie Jomini Stroud, Joshua A. Tucker

Princeton School of Public and International Affairs

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

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 6 weeks before the 2020 US presidential election. We show that most presidential ads were targeted towards parties’ own supporters and that fundraising ads were the 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 favourability and turnout. This was true overall and for both Democrats and Republicans separately.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	884-895
Number of pages	12
Journal	Nature Human Behaviour
Volume	10
Issue number	5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02328-w
State	Published - May 2026

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Social Psychology
Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Behavioral Neuroscience

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Allcott, H., Gentzkow, M., Levy, R., Crespo-Tenorio, A., Dumas, N., Mason, W., Moehler, D., Barberá, P., Brown, T., Cisneros, J. C., Dimmery, D., Freelon, D., González-Bailón, S., Guess, A. M., Kim, Y. M., Lazer, D., Malhotra, N., Nair-Desai, S., Nyhan, B., ... Tucker, J. A. (2026). The effects of political advertising on Facebook and Instagram before the 2020 US election. Nature Human Behaviour, 10(5), 884-895. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02328-w

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title = "The effects of political advertising on Facebook and Instagram before the 2020 US election",

abstract = "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 6 weeks before the 2020 US presidential election. We show that most presidential ads were targeted towards parties{\textquoteright} own supporters and that fundraising ads were the 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 favourability and turnout. This was true overall and for both Democrats and Republicans separately.",

author = "Hunt Allcott and Matthew Gentzkow and Ro{\textquoteright}ee Levy and Adriana Crespo-Tenorio and Natasha Dumas and Winter Mason and Devra Moehler and Pablo Barber{\'a} and Taylor Brown and Cisneros, \{Juan Carlos\} and Drew Dimmery and Deen Freelon and Sandra Gonz{\'a}lez-Bail{\'o}n and Guess, \{Andrew M.\} and Kim, \{Young Mie\} and David Lazer and Neil Malhotra and Sameer Nair-Desai and Brendan Nyhan and \{Paixao de Queiroz\}, \{Ana Carolina\} and Jennifer Pan and Jaime Settle and Emily Thorson and Rebekah Tromble and \{Velasco Rivera\}, Carlos and Benjamin Wittenbrink and Magdalena Wojcieszak and Shiqi Yang and Saam Zahedian and Annie Franco and \{Kiewiet de Jonge\}, Chad and Stroud, \{Natalie Jomini\} and Tucker, \{Joshua A.\}",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited 2026.",

year = "2026",

month = may,

doi = "10.1038/s41562-025-02328-w",

language = "English (US)",

volume = "10",

pages = "884--895",

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Allcott, H, Gentzkow, M, Levy, R, Crespo-Tenorio, A, Dumas, N, Mason, W, Moehler, D, Barberá, P, Brown, T, Cisneros, JC, Dimmery, D, Freelon, D, González-Bailón, S, Guess, AM, Kim, YM, Lazer, D, Malhotra, N, Nair-Desai, S, Nyhan, B, Paixao de Queiroz, AC, Pan, J, Settle, J, Thorson, E, Tromble, R, Velasco Rivera, C, Wittenbrink, B, Wojcieszak, M, Yang, S, Zahedian, S, Franco, A, Kiewiet de Jonge, C, Stroud, NJ & Tucker, JA 2026, 'The effects of political advertising on Facebook and Instagram before the 2020 US election', Nature Human Behaviour, vol. 10, no. 5, pp. 884-895. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02328-w

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AU - Dumas, Natasha

AU - Mason, Winter

AU - Moehler, Devra

AU - Barberá, Pablo

AU - Brown, Taylor

AU - Cisneros, Juan Carlos

AU - Dimmery, Drew

AU - Freelon, Deen

AU - González-Bailón, Sandra

AU - Guess, Andrew M.

AU - Kim, Young Mie

AU - Lazer, David

AU - Malhotra, Neil

AU - Nair-Desai, Sameer

AU - Nyhan, Brendan

AU - Paixao de Queiroz, Ana Carolina

AU - Pan, Jennifer

AU - Settle, Jaime

AU - Thorson, Emily

AU - Tromble, Rebekah

AU - Velasco Rivera, Carlos

AU - Wittenbrink, Benjamin

AU - Wojcieszak, Magdalena

AU - Yang, Shiqi

AU - Zahedian, Saam

AU - Franco, Annie

AU - Kiewiet de Jonge, Chad

AU - Stroud, Natalie Jomini

AU - Tucker, Joshua A.

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EP - 895

JO - Nature Human Behaviour

JF - Nature Human Behaviour

IS - 5

ER -

The effects of political advertising on Facebook and Instagram before the 2020 US election

Abstract

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

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