Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-29T09:32:27.907Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Fighting Fire with Fire: The Implications of (Not) Going Negative in a Multiparty Election Campaign

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 October 2016

Jason Roy  and
Christopher Alcantara
Jason Roy*
Affiliation:
Wilfrid Laurier University
Christopher Alcantara*
Affiliation:
University of Western Ontario
*
Department of Political Science, Wilfrid Laurier University, 75 University Ave W, Waterloo, ON N2L 3C5, Email: [email protected]
Department of Political Science, University of Western Ontario, 1151 Richmond St, London, ON N6A 3K7, Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper draws upon data collected from an online voting experiment to test the implications of “going negative” in a multiparty election campaign. Specifically, we investigate two sets of questions: First, does the attention and vote share that candidates receive vary according to the tone (positive/negative) of their election campaign? Second, does the attention and vote share that candidates receive vary according to whether or not all candidates engage in similar (positive/negative) campaigns? While studies of “negative campaigning” have been prominent in the American context, our work builds upon this literature by using an experimental design to test for their effects in a multiparty setting.

Résumé

Cet article se fonde sur des données recueillies lors d'une expérience de vote en ligne visant à mesurer les implications d'une « orientation négative » de la campagne dans une élection multipartite. Plus précisément, nous examinons deux séries de questions : premièrement, l'attention et les suffrages accordés aux candidats varient-ils en fonction du ton (positif/négatif) de leur campagne électorale ? Deuxièmement, l'attention et les suffrages accordés aux candidats varient- ils en fonction du fait que tous les candidats s'engagent ou non dans des campagnes (positives/négatives) analogues ? Même si les études sur les « campagnes négatives » tiennent une place importante dans le contexte américain, notre analyse s'inscrit dans le prolongement de ces travaux en adoptant un concept de recherche expérimentale qui vise à mesurer leurs effets dans un cadre multipartite.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique , Volume 49 , Issue 3 , September 2016 , pp. 473 - 497
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association (l'Association canadienne de science politique) and/et la Société québécoise de science politique 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Carraro, Luciana, Castelli, Luigi and Gawronski, Bertram. 2013. “Explicit and Implicit Effects of Attacking the Electorate of the Opposite Party.” Psicologia Sociale 2: 279–96.Google Scholar
Carraro, Luciana and Castelli, Luigi, Breazu, Ioana, Campomizzi, Giulia, Cerruto, Antonella, Massimiliano, and Toto, Ivano. 2012. “Just Ignore or Counterattack? On the Effects of Different Strategies for Dealing with Political Attacks.” European Journal of Social Psychology 42: 789–97.Google Scholar
Clifford, Scott and Jerit, Jennifer. 2014. “Is There a Cost to Convenience? An Experimental Comparison of Data Quality in Laboratory and Online Studies.” Journal of Experimental Political Science 1 (2): 120–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Craig, Stephen C. and Rippere, Paulina and Grayson, Marissa Silber. 2014. “Attack and Response in Political Campaigns: An Experimental Study in Two Parts.” Political Communication 31 (4): 647–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Curini, Luigi. 2011. “Negative Campaigning in No-Cabinet Alternation Systems: Ideological Closeness and Blames of Corruption in Italy and Japan Using Party Manifesto Data.” Japanese Journal of Political Science 12 (3): 399–420.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Curini, Luigi and Martelli, Paolo. 2010. “Ideological Proximity and Valence Competition: Negative Campaigning Through Allegation of Corruption in the Italian Legislative Arena from 1946 to 1994.” Electoral Studies 29 (4): 636–647.Google Scholar
Culbert, Lori. 2013. “NDP report calls for more ‘bloody-minded campaign’ next time around.” Vancouver Sun. http://www.vancouversun.com/news/report+calls+more+bloody+minded+campaign+next+time+around/8935933/story.html#ixzz2gEnuf8KO (accessed on September 28, 2016).Google Scholar
Daignault, Pénélope, Soroka, Stuart and Giasson, Thierry. 2013. “The Perception of Political Advertising During an Election Campaign: A Measure of Cognitive Emotional Effects.” Canadian Journal of Communication 38: 167–86.Google Scholar
Dermody, Janine and Scullion, Richard. 2003. “Exploring the Consequences of Negative Political Advertising for Liberal Democracy.” Journal of Political Marketing 2 (1): 77–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dermody, Janine and Hanmer-Lloyd, Stuart. 2011. “An Introspective, Retrospective, Futurespective Analysis of the Attack Advertising in the 2010 British General Election.” Journal of Marketing Management 27 (7–8): 736–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flanagan, Thomas. 2007. Harper's Team: Behind the Scenes in the Conservative Rise to Power. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press.Google Scholar
Flanagan, Thomas. 2014. Winning Power: Canadian Campaigning in the 21st Century. Montreal-Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fridkin, Kim and Kenney, Patrick. 2011. “Variability in Citizens’ Reactions to Different Types of Negative Campaigns.” American Journal of Political Science 55 (2): 307–25.Google Scholar
Fridkin, Kim and Kenney, Patrick. 2008. “The Dimensions of Negative Messages”. American Politics Research. 36(5): 694–723.Google Scholar
Geer, John G. 2006. In Defence of Negativity: Attack Ads in Presidential Campaigns. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haddock, Geoffrey and Zanna, Mark. 1997. “Impact of Negative Advertising on Evaluations of Political Candidates: The 1993 Canadian Federal Election.” Basic and Applied Social Psychology 19 (2): 205–23.Google Scholar
Hansen, Kasper and Pedersen, Rasmus. 2008. “Negative Campaigning in a Multiparty System.” Scandinavian Political Studies 31 (4): 408–27.Google Scholar
Jackson, Robert and Mondak, Jeffrey. 2009. “Examining the Possible Corrosive Impact of Negative Advertising on Citizens’ Attitudes toward Politics.” Political Research Quarterly 62 (1): 55–69.Google Scholar
Jerit, Jennifer. 2004. “Survival of the Fittest: Rhetoric During the Course of an Election Campaign.” Political Psychology 25 (4): 563–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kahneman, Daniel. 2011. Thinking, Fast and Slow. Toronto: Penguin Canada.Google Scholar
Krupnikov, Yanna. 2012. “Negative Advertising and Voter Choice: The Role of Ads in Candidate Selection.” Political Communication 29 (4): 387–413.Google Scholar
Krupnikov, Yanna. 2014. “How Negativity Can Increase and Decrease Voter Turnout: The Effect of Timing.” Political Communication 31 (3): 446–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krupnikov, Yanna and Bauer, Nichole M.. 2014. “The Relationship between Campaign Negativity, Gender and Campaign Context.” Political Behavior 36: 167–88.Google Scholar
Krupnikov, Yanna and Piston, Spencer. 2015. “Accentuating the Negative: Candidate Race and Campaign Strategy.” Political Communication 32 (1): 152–73.Google Scholar
Lau, R. R. 1995. “Information search during an election campaign: Introducing a process-tracing methodology for political scientists.” In Political Judgment: Structure and Process, ed. Lodge, M. and McGraw, K.M.. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Lau, R. R. 2003. Models of decision making. In Handbook of Political Psychology, ed. Sears, D.O., Huddy, L. and Jervis, R.L.. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lau, Richard R. and Redlawsk, David P.. 2006. How Voters Decide: Information Processing During Election Campaigns. Cambridge Studies in Public Opinion and Political Psychology. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lau, Richard and Rovner, Ivy Brown. 2009. “Negative Campaigning”. Annual Review of Political Science. 12: 285–306.Google Scholar
Lau, Richard, Sigelman, Lee, and Rovner, Ivy Brown. 2007. “The Effects of Negative Political Campaigns: A Meta-Analytic Reassessment”. The Journal of Politics. 69(4): 1176–1209.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marks, Eric, Manning, Mark and Ajzen, Icek. 2012. “The Impact of Negative Campaign Ads.” Journal of Applied Social Psychology 42 (5): 1280–92.Google Scholar
Nai, Alessandro. 2013. “What Really Matters is Which Camp Goes Dirty: Differential Effects of Negative Campaigning on Turnout During Swiss Federal Ballots.” European Journal of Political Research 52 (1): 44–70.Google Scholar
Pattie, Charles, Denver, David, Johns, Robert and Mitchell, James. 2010. “Raising the Tone? The Impact of ‘Positive’ and ‘Negative’ Campaigning on Voting in the 2007 Scottish Parliament Election.” Electoral Studies 30 (2): 333–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Redlawsk, David P. 2004. “What Voters Do: Information Search during Election Campaigns.” Political Psychology 25 (August): 595–610 Google Scholar
Rose, Jonathan. 2004. “Television Attack Ads: Planting the Seeds of Doubt.” IRPP Policy Options. September: 92–96.Google Scholar
Rozin, Paul and Royzman, Edward B.. 2001. “Negativity Bias, Negativity Dominance, and Contagion.” Personality and Social Psychology Review 5 (4): 296–320.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simpson, Jeffery. 2011. “The truth about attack ads: They work.” Globe and Mail (Toronto). http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/the-truth-about-attack-ads-they-work/article623025/ (accessed on September 28, 2016).Google Scholar
Soroka, Stuart. 2014. Negativity in Democratic Politics: Causes and Consequences. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Soroka, Stuart and McAdams, Stephen. 2015. “News, Politics and Negativity.” Political Communication 32(1): 1–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stevens, Daniel, Sullivan, John, Allen, Barbara, and Alger, Dean. 2008. “What's Good for the Goose is Bad for the Gander: Negative Political Advertising, Partisanship, and Turnout”. The Journal of Politics. 70(2): 527–541.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sullivan, Jonathan and Sapir, Eliyahu. 2012. “Modelling Negative Campaign Advertising: Evidence from Taiwan”. Asian Journal of Communication. 22(3): 289–303.Google Scholar
Walter, Annemarie S. 2012. “Choosing the Enemy: Attack Behaviour in a Multiparty System.” Party Politics 20 (3): 311–23.Google Scholar
Walter, Annemarie S. and Vliegenthart, Rens. 2010. “Negative Campaigning Across Different Communication Channels: Different Ball Games?” The International Journal of Press/Politics 15 (4): 441–61.Google Scholar
Walter, Annemarie S. and van der Brug, Wouter. 2013. “When the Gloves Come Off: Inter-Party Variation in Negative Campaigning in Dutch Elections, 1981–2010.” Acta Politica 48 (4): 367–388.Google Scholar
Walter, Annemarie, van der Brug, Wouter and van Praag, Philip. 2013. “When the Stakes Are High: Party Competition and Negative Campaigning.” Comparative Political Studies 47 (4): 550–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wu, Denis and Dahmen, Nicole. 2010. “Web Sponsorship and Campaign Effects: Assessing the Difference between Positive and Negative Websites.” Journal of Political Marketing 9 (4): 314–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar