Negative Advertising and the Dynamics of Candidate Support

Abstract

Scholars have spent a great deal of effort examining the effects of negative advertising on citizens' perceptions of candidates. Much of this work has used experimental designs and has produced mixed findings supporting one of two competing theories. First, negative ads may harm candidates who sponsor them because citizens tend to dislike negativity. Second, negativity may drive down citizens' support for the targeted candidate because the attacks give people reasons to reject the target. We argue that the mixed findings produced by prior research may be driven by a disregard for campaign dynamics. We present a critical test of these two theories using data drawn from 80 statewide elections-37 gubernatorial and 43 U.S. Senate contests-from three election years and public opinion polling collected during the last 12 weeks of each campaign. We find that a candidate's support declines as her advertising strategy includes a higher proportion of negative ads relative to her opponent and that this process unfolds slowly over the course of the campaign.

The Mobilizing Effect of Parties' Moral Rhetoric

“…Morality does not have to entail negative emotions, and there is much reason to explore its positive emotional consequences (see also Haidt ; Tangney, Stuewig, and Mashek ). This observation is particularly relevant for party research since parties would want to activate positive emotions among their base, considering the backfiring effects of negative campaigning that previous research has identified (Banda and Windett ; Dowling and Wichowsky ; Pattie et al. ).…”

Stealing Thunder in Negative Political Advertising: The Persuasive Impact of One-sided and Two-sided Negative Messages on Partisan Individuals

“…However, the consequences of NPA go beyond the intended effects; negative ads are likely to create a backlash from voters (Ansolabehere & Iyengar, 1995; Cappella & Jamieson, 1997; Schenck-Hamlin, Procter, & Rumsey, 2000). For instance, a recent study presents evidence that a candidate’s support withers over time as the candidate’s attacks on the opponent increase over the course of the campaign, suggesting that candidates who enjoy massive attacks may undermine themselves after all (Banda & Windett, 2016). Partisan voters, especially in a two-party system, are likely to depreciate negative information about their favourite candidate, raising counterarguments (Faber, Tims, & Schmit, 1993; Kaid & Boydston, 1987; Merritt, 1984).…”

Valence Attacks Harm the Electoral Performance of the Left but Not the Right

“…Prior work provides no clear answer because, despite the prevalence of valence attacks, their effectiveness has not received much scholarly attention. To be sure, a growing literature, mostly in the American context, has explored the causes and the consequences of negative campaigning more generally, regardless of whether it is valence related (Banda and Windett 2016;Fridkin and Kenney 2011;Krupnikov 2011;Walter, van der Brug and van Praag 2014). 6 Yet, the results are mixed (Lau, Sigelman and Rovner 2007), comparative work on this topic is rare, and few studies have paid attention to valence attacks specifically.…”