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Negative Campaigning and Attack Ads

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The Psychology of Micro-Targeted Election Campaigns

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Abstract

Ideally, political discourse is a lofty, earnest, and progressive discussion of competing ideologies, disagreement over the interpretation of available data and facts, and diverging predictions. In real life, however, politics can be poor, nasty, brutish, and short. Negative attack adverts that slander or denigrate opposing ideologies or persons embody this side of political discourse. Aside from the prevalence of these adverts, misinformation can persist even when it has been corrected. This chapter presents historical examples of attack ads and considers the role of negative campaigning.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Napoleon reportedly was around 5′7″, which is taller than the average Frenchman at the time—and taller than his British opponent, Lord Nelson who reportedly was roughly 5′4″.

  2. 2.

    While the examples are of attacks on Jackson, it should be noted that he gave as good as he got. Also, his initiation of the Trail of Tears and cleansing of Native Americans suggest suspicions of lack of compassion may have been justified.

  3. 3.

    Other famous attack ads include the Willie Horton ad (1988), the Dukakis tank ride (1988), and the 3 am phone call against Barack Obama (2008).

  4. 4.

    In the USA, trust in government is worryingly low. For example, in a Gallup poll on September 2018, only 19% approve of congress while 79% disapprove.

  5. 5.

    In Chaps. 10 and 11 we shall explore the dynamic function of information systems and how these can be used strategically (both constructively and destructively).

  6. 6.

    For a competing, Bayesian interpretation, see Madsen et al. (2019).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Jens Koed Madsen

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Correspondence to Jens Koed Madsen .

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Madsen, J.K. (2019). Negative Campaigning and Attack Ads. In: The Psychology of Micro-Targeted Election Campaigns. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22145-4_9

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