THE EFFECTS OF NEGATIVE COMPARATIVE POLITICAL ADVERTISING ON CANDIDATE EVALUATIONS AND ADVERTISING EVALUATIONS - AN EXPLORATION

Currently, political candidates employ a mix of strategies that includ es the use of comparative advertising as a means of communicating nega tive information about an opponent to prospective voters while avoidin g the stigma attached to purely negative ''attack'' advertising. An ex periment was conducted to determine the effects of negative comparativ e political advertising on candidate and advertising evaluations. The results indicate that negative comparative advertising lowers targeted -candidate evaluations without lowering sponsoring-candidate evaluatio ns, despite the low credibility ratings received by such advertising. The results are discussed in relation, to other research findings and in terms of both campaign strategy and public policy implications.