Media, Pulpit, and Populist Persuasion: Evidence from Father Coughlin

2021/08/30 by Tianyi Wang · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Psychology · #Media Influence and Politics #Social Media and Politics #Misinformation and Its Impacts #Pulpit #Persuasion #Political science #Psychology #Social psychology #Theology #Philosophy

paper · pdf · doi:10.1257/aer.20200513

openalex publication_date 2021/08/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04

Abstract

I study the political impact of the first populist radio personality in American history. Father Charles Coughlin blended populist demagoguery, anti-Semitism, and fascist sympathies to create a hugely popular radio program that attracted 30 million weekly listeners in the 1930s. I find that exposure to Father Coughlin’s anti-Roosevelt broadcast reduced Franklin D. Roosevelt’s vote share in the 1936 presidential election. Coughlin’s effects were larger among Catholics and persisted after Coughlin left the air. Moreover, places more exposed to Coughlin’s broadcast were more likely to form a local branch of the pro-Nazi German-American Bund and sold fewer war bonds during World War II. (JEL D72, L82, N32, N42, Z12)

Citations

• Propaganda and Conflict: Evidence from the Rwandan Genocide *
• A Practitioner’s Guide to Cluster-Robust Inference
• Television and Voter Turnout*
• Income Inequality in the United States, 1913-1998
• Radio and the Rise of The Nazis in Prewar Germany*
• The Fox News Effect: Media Bias and Voting
• The Political Economy of Mass Media
• Importing Political Polarization? The Electoral Consequences of Rising Trade Exposure
• The Surge of Economic Nationalism in Western Europe
• Bootstrap-Based Improvements for Inference with Clustered Errors

Cited by

• Charles Coughlin [wikipedia]

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