Release date: Feb. 17, 2004

Watch for Mud: Negative Campaigning a Tricky Tool for Candidates

Contact:
Elaine Justice, 404-727-0643, ejustic@emory.edu
Deb Hammacher, 404-727-0644, dhammac@emory.edu

Whether it’s military records, WMDs or alleged infidelity, the mud has already started to flow in this year’s presidential campaigns. With negative campaigning a fundamental part of the process, two Emory University professors weigh in on its effectiveness.

Emory political scientist Alan Abramowitz says the jury is still out on the effects of negative campaigning on voter behavior. While some research shows that negative campaigning turns off voters and lowers turnout, he says there has been no general consensus among political scientists on its overall effectiveness in helping a candidate win elections.

New McCain-Feingold campaign laws now require presidential candidates to publicly endorse any campaign ads they run, which may have an effect in reducing some negativity, although the new laws don’t prevent outside groups from running negative ads on behalf of a candidate, according to Abramowitz. He says a lot of negative campaigning doesn’t even reach the air-waves, with much of it found in direct-mail and Internet campaigns.

Psychology professor Drew Westen, who studies how emotions affect the way voters make decisions, says the key for a candidate engaging in negative campaigning is to "handle what's a double-edged sword: The negative emotion can become associated, as intended, with the competition, or it can get associated with the person who is slinging the mud."

While no one seems to have figured out the exact formula for how to do it successfully, the most effective strategies tend to be those that are, according to Westen, "subtle or implicit (such as the Willy Horton ad, which associated Dukakis with letting free dangerous criminals, but never said anything explicitly racist) and are usually built on something the public already believes or fears. Successful negative campaign slurs also are said with moral righteousness that feels genuine and are not easily shown to be unfair or reflecting a gross distortion of the facts.”

Reach Abramowitz at 404-727-0108 or polsaa@emory.edu. Reach Westen at 404-727-7407 (w), 404-375-6639 (cell) or dwesten@emory.edu. Our full list of political experts is online at www.emory.edu/central/NEWS/Releases/expertstalk.html.

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