An Experimental Study of the Effectiveness of Negative Campaign Messaging: Will Outcome Framing Work for Partisans in Polarised Politics?

Abstract

The current study focuses on the use of outcome framing as a strategic negative message tactic and its impact on partisans. Specifically, this study theorises that the impact of partisan cues such as party affiliation is moderated by differently framed claims in negative political advertising. Participants viewed a negative ad, varying in outcome framing (negative ramifications of electing the targeted candidate versus positive consequences of defeating the target) and partisan matching (in-party versus out-party). Participants were recruited via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Experiment 1 (N = 96), where a Republican candidate was the target of a negative ad, revealed that the persuasiveness of a loss-framed negative ad significantly increased in the out-party versus in-party condition. Experiment 2 (N = 123), where a Democratic candidate was the target of a negative ad, found that a loss framed-negative ad was significantly more influential than a gain-framed negative ad in both in-party and out-party conditions. Implications exist for design and practice of negative campaign messaging.