Going Negative: How Political Advertisements Shrink and Polarize the Electorate » (1st Edition)

Drawing on both laboratory experiments and the real world of America's presidential, gubernatorial, and congressional races, the authors show that negative advertising drives down voter turnout - in some cases dramatically - and that political consultants intentionally use ads for this very purpose. In the 1992 presidential election, by the authors' calculation, over 6 million votes were lost to negative campaigns. Negative ads work better for Republicans than for Democrats, and better for men than for women; unfortunately, negative ads also work better in general than positive ones, so attacking has become nearly universal. Republican primary campaigns increasingly set the tone for our national general elections, and they do so with relentless attacks. Everyone, even a war hero like Colin Powell, is fair game, and few reputations can emerge unscathed. The result of such a bitter contest is that independent voters, who are disproportionately well educated and open minded, are repulsed by the entire system and have been converted to non-voting apathetics. We are losing some of our best citizens, and pandering to the extremists who remain.

Library Journal

As they enter an election year, most voters are bracing themselves for yet another round of harsh, negative campaign ads. And although the average citizen decries the use of such ads, political consultants consistently employ them. In this book by two political scientists, we learn why and how negative ads are effective. Using four years of controlled experiments in which real voters viewed professionally designed campaign commercials-both positive and negative-the authors detected a number of important results. Campaign advertising, they conclude, is persuasive but not manipulative; voters do learn from ads, regardless of their length, because they simplify the task of voting. Exposure to advertising also reinforces potential partisan sentiments. The most disturbing findings, however, are that negative ads suppress voter turnout by discouraging nonpartisan or independent voters and that such ads increase voters' cynicism about elections and their own ability to affect the political system. Despite the sophisticated methodology, the authors' writing is accessible to the informed reader. Their book is essential for any serious student of American elections and is likely to be the focus of much discussion during the coming election.-Thomas J. Baldino, Wilkes Univ., Wilkes-Barre, Pa.