Examining Citizens’ Impressions of Negativity During U.S. Senate Campaigns

2019 ◽  
pp. 102-126
Author(s):  
Kim L. Fridkin ◽  
Patrick J. Kenney
Keyword(s):  
National Survey ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Transient Phenomenon ◽  
Negative Campaigning ◽  
Electoral Campaigns ◽  
Central Elements ◽  
Low Levels ◽  
Party Attachment ◽  
Negative Messages ◽  
Senatorial Elections

Chapter 6 presents the results of a national survey experiment conducted during the 2014 senatorial elections that validates central elements of the tolerance and tactics theory of negativity. First, people with low levels of tolerance for negativity are more likely to see incivility in negative messages and view negative messages as less usefulcompared to citizens who tolerate negative campaigning more easily. Second, the importance of tolerance for negativity holds up, even when controlling for important political predispositions, such as party attachment and attitudes about the issues. These findings demonstrate that tolerance for negativity is different from people’s partisan and policy profile. Third, the importance of tolerance for negativity is critical during the throes of the campaign as well as after the campaign has ended and all votes are tallied. These results indicate that tolerance for negativity is not a transient phenomenon active only during electoral campaigns.

Taking Aim at Attack Advertising

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Fridkin ◽  
Patrick Kenney
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Data Sources ◽  
Empirical Validation ◽  
Negative Campaigning ◽  
Senate Elections ◽  
Campaign Messages ◽  
Negative Messages ◽  
The Impact

This book develops and tests the “tolerance and tactics theory of negativity.” The theory argues that citizens differ in their tolerance of negative campaigning. Also, candidates vary in the tactics used to attack their opponents, with negative messages varying in their relevance to voters and in the civility of their tone. The interplay between citizens’ tolerance of negativity and candidates’ negative messages helps clarify when negative campaigning will influence citizens’ evaluations of candidates and their likelihood of voting. A diverse set of data sources was collected from U.S. Senate elections (e.g., survey data, experiments, content analysis, focus groups) across several years to test the theory. The tolerance and tactics theory of negativity receives strong empirical validation. First, people differ systematically in their tolerance for negativity, and their tolerance changes over the course of the campaign. Second, people’s levels of tolerance consistently and powerfully influence how they assess negative messages. Third, the relevance and civility of negative messages consistently influence citizens’ assessments of candidates competing for office. That is, negative messages focusing on relevant topics and utilizing an uncivil tone produce significant changes in people’s impressions of the candidates. Furthermore, people’s tolerance of negativity influences their susceptibility to negative campaigning. Specifically, relevant and uncivil messages are most influential for people who are least tolerant of negative campaigning. The relevance and civility of campaign messages also alter people’s likelihood of voting, and the impact of negative messages on turnout is more consequential for people with less tolerance of negativity.

scholarly journals A National Evaluation of State and Territory Roles in Hazard Mitigation: Building Local Capacity to Implement FEMA Hazard Mitigation Assistance Grants

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (23) ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Gavin Smith ◽  
Olivia Vila
Keyword(s):  
Emergency Management ◽  
National Survey ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Technical Assistance ◽  
Hazard Mitigation ◽  
Grant Applications ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Low Levels ◽  
Resilient Infrastructure ◽  
Survey Responses

This article describes the findings of a national survey of State Hazard Mitigation Officers (SHMOs) in U.S. states and territories in order to gain a greater understanding of the roles that they play in assisting local governments to build the capacity required to successfully develop and implement Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)-funded Hazard Mitigation Assistance (HMA) grants, an important but understudied aspect of hazard mitigation governance. The research questions focus on: (1) How states and territories enable local governments to develop and implement HMA grants and (2) SHMOs’ opinions regarding their perceived capacity and effectiveness in assisting local governments to develop and implement HMA grants. Results show that while states and territories are relatively well-equipped to perform general administrative duties required by FEMA, SHMOs expressed wide variation in their capacity to assist local governments to develop and implement HMA grants. This was particularly evident with regard to the delivery of specific technical assistance measures required to develop HMA grants. Survey responses also highlight modest levels of participation in FEMA-designed efforts to delegate responsibility to states and territories and low levels of participation in programs that offer pre-application funding to local governments to help them develop HMA grant applications. These findings should concern FEMA as the agency embarks on the implementation of the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, an ambitious pre-disaster hazard mitigation grant initiative.

scholarly journals Elite Communication and the Popular Legitimacy of International Organizations

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa M. Dellmuth ◽  
Jonas Tallberg
Keyword(s):  
International Organizations ◽  
Population Based ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Elite Communication ◽  
Citizen Perceptions ◽  
Negative Messages ◽  
National Governments ◽  
The Eu ◽  
Population Based Survey

Abstract This article offers the first systematic and comparative analysis of the effects of elite communication on citizen perceptions of the legitimacy of international organizations (IOs). Departing from cueing theory, it develops novel hypotheses about the effects of elite communication under the specific conditions of global governance. It tests these hypotheses by conducting a population-based survey experiment among almost 10,000 residents of three countries in relation to five IOs. The evidence suggests four principal findings. First, communication by national governments and civil society organizations has stronger effects on legitimacy perceptions than communication by IOs themselves. Secondly, elite communication affects legitimacy perceptions irrespective of whether it invokes IOs’ procedures or performance as grounds for criticism or endorsement. Thirdly, negative messages are more effective than positive messages in shaping citizens' legitimacy perceptions. Fourthly, comparing across IOs indicates that elite communication is more often effective in relation to the IMF, NAFTA and WTO, than the EU and UN.

Campaign Communications in U.S. Congressional Elections

2009 ◽  
Vol 103 (3) ◽  
pp. 343-366 ◽  
Author(s):  
JAMES N. DRUCKMAN ◽  
MARTIN J. KIFER ◽  
MICHAEL PARKIN
Keyword(s):  
Web Sites ◽  
Congressional Elections ◽  
Democratic Governance ◽  
Newspaper Coverage ◽  
Rhetorical Strategies ◽  
Complete Understanding ◽  
Negative Campaigning ◽  
Electoral Campaigns ◽  
Congressional Campaigns ◽  
Advance Research

Electoral campaigns are the foundation of democratic governance; yet scholarship on the content of campaign communications remains underdeveloped. In this paper, we advance research on U.S. congressional campaigns by integrating and extending extant theories of campaign communication. We test the resulting predictions with a novel dataset based on candidate Web sites over three election cycles. Unlike television advertisements or newspaper coverage, Web sites provide an unmediated, holistic, and representative portrait of campaigns. We find that incumbents and challengers differ across a broad range of behavior that reflects varying attitudes toward risk, that incumbents’ strategies depend on the competitiveness of the race, and that candidates link negative campaigning to other aspects of their rhetorical strategies. Our efforts provide researchers with a basis for moving toward a more complete understanding of congressional campaigns.

When are Stereotypes about Black Candidates Applied? An Experimental Test

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 253-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristyn L. Karl ◽  
Timothy J. Ryan
Keyword(s):  
Social Welfare ◽  
National Survey ◽  
Experimental Test ◽  
Welfare Policy ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Social Welfare Policy ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Racial Identities ◽  
Black Candidates

AbstractPast research shows that candidates' racial identities influence the assumptions that voters draw about how they will behave in office. In a national survey experiment examining televised candidate advertisements, we find evidence that stereotypes differ both in their potency and how vulnerable they are to disconfirmation. Consistent with previous work, black candidates are broadly assumed to be more liberal than white candidates, although the effect is notably small in magnitude. Yet when it comes to more specific stereotypes—how black candidates will behave on individual issues—effects are not only much larger, but also more contingent on what information is available. We find that by providing a small bit of ideological information, black candidates can overcome the assumption that they will enact liberal policies as concerns taxation and non-racialized aspects of social welfare policy. But it is much more difficult for them to overturn the assumption that they will prioritize aid to minorities while in office.

scholarly journals A national survey showed low levels of physical activity in a representative sample of Swedish adolescents

2020 ◽  
Vol 109 (11) ◽  
pp. 2342-2353 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gisela Nyberg ◽  
Karin Kjellenberg ◽  
Andreas Fröberg ◽  
Anna Karin Lindroos
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
National Survey ◽  
Representative Sample ◽  
Low Levels

scholarly journals Swaying citizen support for EU membership: Evidence from a survey experiment of German voters

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 429-450
Author(s):  
Nikoleta Yordanova ◽  
Mariyana Angelova ◽  
Roni Lehrer ◽  
Moritz Osnabrügge ◽  
Sander Renes
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
German Population ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Difference In Differences ◽  
Eu Membership ◽  
Citizen Support ◽  
Low Levels ◽  
Eu Support

The United Kingdom’s 2016 ‘Brexit’ referendum vote to leave the European Union (EU) raised concerns that other countries would follow suit. This article examines how arguments about EU membership related to economic, cultural, political, and security and peace issues could influence how citizens would vote in EU membership referendums. Our two-wave survey experiment on a random sample of the German population and difference-in-differences analysis revealed that only fears of being outvoted in EU decision-making swayed German voters’ attitudes about EU membership, particularly voters with weaker EU support, little EU knowledge and low levels of political engagement. We therefore conclude that concerns about sovereignty loss can be drivers of Euroscepticism even in a country that has vast influence over EU decisions.

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