Negative Advertising and Voter Choice: The Role of Ads in Candidate Selection

摘要

Selecting between two candidates during a campaign is a crucial first step toward political involvement: an individual who does not select a preferred political candidate is unlikely to take political action. Can negative campaign ads help individuals make these electoral choices? Empirical evidence on this topic has been mixed. Some argue that negativity can increase the likelihood of choice. Others show that negativity will decrease the likelihood of choice by turning individuals away from the polls. Integrating theories from social psychology and political science I argue and show that under specific conditions, negativity increases the likelihood that an individual will make a candidate selection. Further, I differentiate between the tone and substance of ads to show that negativity has a unique effect on choice.[Supplementary material is available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Political Communication for the following free supplemental resource(s): Robustness checks. This supplemental appendix establishes the importance of the choice point in individual behavior and considers alternative conceptions of exposure to advertising.]View full textDownload full textKeywordsnegative advertising, candidate choiceRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2012.721868