What does a negative political ad really say? The effects of different content dimensions

Abstract

This article investigates the effects of negative political advertising, focusing particularly on three ad dimensions: appeal content; appeal importance; and the presence of evidence. Results indicate that when negative ads do not provide evidence, unimportant appeals benefit the ad sponsor more than important appeals, regardless of whether the appeal centers on issues or images. However, when attack ads provide appeals-related evidence, significant interactive effects emerge between appeal content and appeal importance. With image-related appeals, unimportant appeals generate more harm for the target but less for the sponsor compared with important ones. In contrast, when appealing to issues, important appeals are more advantageous for the sponsor. The authors discuss the implications of these and other findings.

Keywords:

• negative political advertising
• appeal content
• appeal importance
• evidence

Notes

^1. The Legislative Yuan is the unicameral legislature of Taiwan (ROC), similar to the ‘parliament’ in many other democratic countries. The major members of the Legislative Yuan are the legislators, who belong to central-/national-level representatives. Starting with the 2008 legislative elections, terms are set for a period of four years, and legislators can come into office through the following ways: 73 are elected under the first-past-the-post system in single-member constituencies (every county or city, including direct-controlled municipalities and provincial cities, has a minimum of one electoral district, thereby guaranteeing at least one seat in the legislature. According to the current population proportion, Taipei City is divided into eight electoral districts, and Kaohsiung City is divided into five electoral districts); 34 are elected under the supplementary member system on a second ballot, based on nationwide votes, and calculated using the largest remainder method; and six seats are elected by aboriginal voters through a single non-transferable vote in two three-member constituencies.