Stealing Thunder in Negative Political Advertising: The Persuasive Impact of One-sided and Two-sided Negative Messages on Partisan Individuals. (March 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kim, Kenneth
• Is Part Of: Journal of creative communications. Volume 15:Number 1(2020:Mar.)
• Page Start: 7
• Page End: 18
• Publication Date: 2020-03
• Subjects: Message sidedness -- negative political advertising -- party bias -- persuasion -- two-sided persuasion; Communication -- Periodicals; Mass media -- Periodicals; Information theory -- Periodicals; 302.2305
• DOI: 10.1177/0973258619876222
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0973-2586

Abstract

Although two-sided persuasion is a common technique in political speeches, few research has reported the relative persuasiveness of a one-versus two-sided message in the context of negative political advertising. Participants ( N = 116) viewed a negative political ad, varying in message sidedness (one-sided vs. two-sided) and partisan match (partisan-match vs. partisan-mismatch vs. unaffiliated). Multivariate results revealed the relative advantage of two-sided persuasion in the partisan-match condition where participants viewed a negative ad targeting their supporting party candidate. One-sided persuasion was more effective in the partisan-mismatch condition where participants viewed a negative ad criticizing the opposition party candidate. Implications for the practice of strategic negative political campaigns were discussed.