Selective Exposure and Electoral Competition

We study how selective exposure to information by voters impacts electoral competition between two policy-motivated candidates. Each candidate has stochastic valence that is realized after the candidates choose platforms. In our model of selective exposure, voters receive information about the candidates’ valences that is slanted to reflect their ideological preferences. Existing work predicts that selective exposure intensifies platform polarization relative to settings in which voters obtain information from a neutral source. We show instead that it can reduce platform polarization.