'Look at How Corrupt They Are!': How Anti-Political Discourse from Politicians Affects Their Own Image and the Image of Politics

In this article, we use a survey experiment (N = 1,626) to test whether anti-political Facebook messages from politicians improve the character evaluation of the messenger while damaging the image of politics. We take account of people's preexisting anti-political attitudes and their support for the political messenger as important moderators. Results show that anti-political discourse from politicians has minimal effects on the attitudes of audiences toward the messenger and toward politics. We find limited support for three underlying mechanisms: anti-political messages give (some) audiences new impressions that improve the personal image of the messenger (impression formation), anti-political discourse from politicians alienates some of their supporters (backlash effect), and anti-political discourse has more effect on people who do not hold anti-political attitudes (attitudinal incongruence). Overall, our results show that politicians reap little benefit from using anti-political discourse, as such discourse may worsen their own image and the image of politics among certain audiences.