Premium
ELECTION RELATED BEHAVIORAL OUTCOMES: TELEVISED NEGATIVE CAMPAIGN MESSAGES
Author(s) -
McBride Allan,
Toburen Robert,
Thomas Dan
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
southeastern political review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1747-1346
pISSN - 0730-2177
DOI - 10.1111/j.1747-1346.1997.tb00452.x
Subject(s) - presidency , voter turnout , advertising , political advertising , political science , turnout , politics , social psychology , psychology , voting , business , law
The research reported in this paper is an examination of the self‐reported systemic effects of negative campaign advertising. Subjects in a series of field experiments conducted in 1986, 1988, and 1990 were exposed to televised negative campaign advertising within several nights prior to an election. The stimulus ads were taken from those aired as part of actual election campaigns. Using aposttest only control group design the authors examined for differences between groups in terms of voter turnout, controlling for the voter interest in politics and whether the campaign was for the presidency or Senate. Support was found for the notion that negative campaign ads depressed voter turnout under some conditions. The authors also found that negative advertising may stimulate voter activity under some conditions.