''Why attack ads work
If you’re sick of all those negative political ads that run on television before Election Day, well, you’re out of luck. Those ads—which many people say they hate—run for a reason: They work.
So says Joan Phillips, a Quinlan professor of marketing who has researched how voters react to negative political ads. But if so many people say they can’t stand the ads, why are they so effective?
It’s the same reason why people are more likely to watch the weather when a hurricane is coming than when it’s sunny and 70 degrees outside, Phillips says.
“We pay more attention to negative information,” she says. “It’s more salient, it scares us, and we’re more likely to remember it.”
. . .
in a tightly contested race, like this year’s presidential election, getting even a few people to change their vote can make all the difference in the world.
“That’s a huge, huge gain for a candidate,” Phillips says.
Negative ads tend to work best when people are passionate about the campaign, such as a presidential election where the stakes are high, Phillips says. . . .
So what’s the bottom line?
“We’re not saying positive ads aren’t good,” Phillips says. “It’s just that negative ads are effective.”
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