The Effects of Negative Comparative Political Advertising on Candidate Evaluations and Advertising Evaluations: An Exploration

Abstract

Currently, political candidates employ a mix of strategies that includes the use of comparative advertising as a means of communicating negative information about an opponent to prospective voters while avoiding the stigma attached to purely negative “attack” advertising. An experiment was conducted to determine the effects of negative comparative political advertising on candidate and advertising evaluations. The results indicate that negative comparative advertising lowers targeted-candidate evaluations without lowering sponsoring-candidate evaluations, despite the low credibility ratings received by such advertising. The results are discussed in relation to other research findings and in terms of both campaign strategy and public policy implications.