Hate Negative Political Ads All You Want. They Work.
From the Briefcase: Research produced by America's Best Business Schools
Negativity, in other words, may bring more bang for its buck than previously thought. Positive ads certainly don't seem to have anything close to the same effect on viewers from the opposing side. (In the study, after watching a positive ad from an opposition candidate, only 5 percent of viewers moved closer to the ad's sponsor; the ad's effect on supporters was nonexistent.) Negative ads do have some costs, of course. But the fact that some voters end up more partisan as a result of a politician's going negative is a small price to pay, it seems, since those voters were most likely lost to the other side anyway.
The political implications of these findings are clear: "The goal of any campaign strategist is to get people into that undecided category," says Phillips. "When we're talking about millions of voters in a presidential election, a couple of percentage points is a huge shift."
The best way to win those hearts and minds, oddly enough, may be to go negative–early and often. It certainly won't make watching TV over the next few weeks any more pleasant, of course. But hate 'em all you want. Negative ads seem to work.
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