Effects of negative political advertising: The roles of sponsor and rebuttal

Garramone, Gina M.

doi:10.1080/08838158509386573

Cited by 132 publications

(107 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Although some evidence suggests that strong attack messages can result in voter backlash (Garramone, 1985;Merritt, 1984;stewart, 1975), political professionals seem convinced of their efficacy. As Sabato (1981, pp.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Inoculation in Political Campaign Communication

1988

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The use of attack messages in political campaign communication has grown in recent years. This investigation posits a strategy of resistance to the influence of attack messages. A total of 341 initial and follow‐up treatment interviews and 392 control interviews were completed among potential voters in a U.S. Senate campaign during October 1986. We hypothesized that political campaign messages can be designed to inoculate supporters of candidates against subsequent attack messages of opposing candidates. This prediction was supported. In addition, the results supported the hypothesis that inoculation confers more resistance to subsequent attack messages among strong political party identifiers as opposed to weak identifiers, non‐identifiers, and crossovers. The results of this investigation extend the scope of inoculation theory to new domain, and at the same time, suggest a new strategic approach for candidates in political campaigns.

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confidence: 99%

Inoculation in Political Campaign Communication

1988

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“…Most of the academic research concerning attack commercials has focused on viewers' short-term reactions, finding that, since people dislike them, attack spots are ineffective (Garramone, 1984(Garramone, , 1985Hill, 1989;Merritt, 1984;Newhagen & Reeves, 1991;Roddy & Garramone, 1988;Shapiro & Rieger, 1989;Stewart, 1975;Swinyard, 1981). Although we concur that most people don't like attack commercials, we dispute the claim that therefore they are ineffective.…”

Section: Limitations Of Negativitymentioning

confidence: 60%

“…Academic research indicates that the public dislikes attack commercials, thus undermining their believability (Hill, 1989;Merritt, 1984;Swinyard, 1981). Therefore, some suggest that attacks produce a boomerang effect against their sponsors (Garramone, 1984(Garramone, , 1985Merritt, 1984;Newhagen & Reeves, 1991;Roddy & Garramone, 1988;Shapiro & Rieger, 1989;Stewart, 1975).…”

Section: Effectiveness Of Attack Spotsmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…Their manipulations used relatively unknown candidates, such as the Garramone (1985) study which administered attack messages involving Montana Senate candidates to Michigan State undergraduate students; the Newhagen and Reeves (1991) Stewart (1975) and Roddy and Garramone (1988) studies which used fictitious candidates and messages; and the Merritt (1984) study which examined candidate attack messages in a California State Assembly campaign. Expectancy theory would predict a backlash effect in these circumstances, especially in the short term prior to the onset of differential decay.…”

Section: Limitations Of Negativitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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An expectancy theory explanation of the effectiveness of political attack television spots: A case study

Pfau

Parrott

Lindquist

1992

Journal of Applied Communication Research

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“…Questions and concerns about the ethics and influence of negative political ads are common in both the popular press (Grove 1989;Martz 1988;Taylor 1989) and the academic literature (Caywood and Laczniak 1985;Garramone et al 1990;Hill 1989;Merritt 1984). This debate has been spurred by the high degree to which candidates are employing this form of advertising.…”

mentioning

confidence: 95%