Effects of Negative Political Advertising on Voting Intention: An Exploration of the Roles of Involvement and Source Credibility in the Development of Voter Cynicism

Abstract

Candidates' use of negative political advertising continues to generate objections among individuals and concern among scholars and journalists. An experiment examining the influence of negative political advertising on individuals' voting decisions indicated that the effects and effectiveness of such advertising depend, at least in part, on the situational involvement of the participants and the credibility of the candidate. As would be expected, participants' intent to vote for a candidate who uses negative political advertising is higher for a high‐credibility candidate than for a low‐credibility candidate. This is true regardless of their level of situational political involvement. However, highly involved participants do experience greater cynicism when a high‐credibility candidate uses negative political advertising rather than when a low‐credibility candidate uses such advertising. There is no change in the cynicism of participants who are low in involvement, regardless of the credibility level of the candidate who uses the negative advertising.