The role of gender in ‘'attack ads: “ Revisiting negative political advertising

Abstract

An experiment was designed to examine the relationship between candidate gender and the impact of negative political ads on perceptions of the sponsoring candidate and the likelihood of voter support. Gender of candidate sponsor (M/F) and opponent target (M/F) were manipulated in the 2×2 between subjects design. Subjects listened to one of four negative political campaign radio spot ads differing only in the names of the sponsoring candidate and targeted opponent. Results indicated that there was a significant difference in subjects’ attitudes toward and likelihood to vote for the candidate sponsor of a negative ad depending on the gender of both the sponsor and the opponent target candidate. Specifically, respondents rated the candidate sponsors of negative political ads significantly more positively and were more likely to vote for the sponsor when the ads were directed against an opponent of the opposite sex.