“Targeted” Advertising and Voter Turnout: An Experimental Study of the 2000 Presidential Election

Scholars disagree whether negative advertising demobilizes or stimulates the electorate. We use an experiment with over 10,200 eligible voters to evaluate the two leading hypotheses of negative political advertising. We extend the analysis to examine whether advertising differentially impacts the tu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of politics 2004-02, Vol.66 (1), p.69-96
Main Authors: Clinton, Joshua D., Lapinski, John S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Advertising
Advertising campaigns
Control groups
Demography
Elections
Empirical evidence
Older adults
Political advertising
Political campaigns
Presidential elections
Presidents
United States of America
Voter behavior
Voter turnout
Voting
Voting Behavior
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Summary:Scholars disagree whether negative advertising demobilizes or stimulates the electorate. We use an experiment with over 10,200 eligible voters to evaluate the two leading hypotheses of negative political advertising. We extend the analysis to examine whether advertising differentially impacts the turnout of voter subpopulations depending on the advertisement's message. In the short term, we find no evidence that exposure to negative advertisements decreases turnout and little that suggests it increases turnout. Any effect appears to depend upon the message of the advertisement and the characteristics of the viewer. In the long term, we find little evidence that the information contained in the treatment groups' advertisements is sufficient to systematically alter turnout.
ISSN:0022-3816
1468-2508
DOI:10.1046/j.1468-2508.2004.00142.x