Overwhelmed Voters Unplug: Perceived Election News Overload and Intentional Election News Avoidance

Abstract

U.S. presidential campaigns generate an extraordinary volume of political news intended to inform and mobilize the electorate. Yet long-standing concerns about citizens’ limited capacity to process political information raise the possibility that this abundance may instead produce disengagement as a coping mechanism for election stress. This study examines whether perceptions of election news overload during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign are linked to intentional avoidance of election-related news. Drawing on an original six-item measure of perceived election news overload, the analysis reveals substantial heterogeneity in how citizens experienced the campaign news environment, with a majority reporting at least some degree of overload. Importantly, higher levels of perceived election news overload are associated with a greater likelihood of intentionally avoiding election coverage. This relationship persists after accounting for well-established predictors of political information engagement, including political interest, efficacy, knowledge, partisan strength, and demographics. Moving beyond reliance on self-reports alone, the study combines survey measures with a news story selection task to capture both behavioral and stated avoidance. The findings suggest that information abundance during campaigns may undermine citizen competence by encouraging strategic disengagement from election news.

Keywords

election news overload news avoidance campaign coverage media effects election stress

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