AN EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF THE "PULL" EFFECT.

The article focuses on experimental investigation of the pull effect. A comparison of the supporters of U.S. senators Joseph McCarthy, Adlai Stevenson and Dwight D. Eisenhower has been done. Anti-McCarthy subjects when compared to pro-McCarthy subjects will tend to give a lower estimate of the strength of McCarthy's support in a perceptually ambiguous situation, and Pro-Stevenson subjects when compared to pro-Eisenhower subjects will tend to give a higher estimate of Stevenson's support in a perceptually ambiguous situation. Attitudes toward McCarthy may involve much more strong feeling titan attitudes relating to Eisenhower and Stevenson. The question relating to Eisenhower and Stevenson was retrospective in nature while that relating to McCarthy demanded awareness of the immediate status of the Senator, and in this respect, exposure to many polls, to the actual election results, and to post-election analyses may have operated to reduce the ambiguity of the Eisenhower-Stevenson issue.