W. Cwalina et al., Role of advertising in forming the image of politicians: Comparative analysis of Poland, France, and Germany, MEDIA PSYCH, 2(2), 2000, pp. 119-146
This article presents an analysis of the influence of political advertiseme
nts on forming the image of politicians and the voting behavior of citizens
. The very important issues are attitude to the candidates and estimation o
f their personal qualities. After a critical analysis of current models of
the influence of political advertisements on the voters, the authors derive
d the sequential model of the influence of political advertisement on votin
g behavior Experiments in three countries were conducted in order to verify
this model: Poland (1995 presidential election), France (presidential elec
tions in 1995), and Germany (general election in 1994). The results confirm
the dependencies described in the model. The results also allow for distin
guishing three types of impact that political advertisements may have on vo
ting decisions: (1) strengthening former voting preferences; (2) weakening
the former preferences and their change or reverse in an extreme case; and
(3) lack of impact or small fluctuations in voting preferences accompanied
by simultaneous reconfiguration of a politician's image in the voters' mind
s (or reargumentation as far as the motives of one's decision are concerned
). The results obtained in the research also allow for deriving a number of
practical clues concerning the possibilities of making more efficient poli
tical ads.