Impact of negative advertising on evaluations of political candidates: The 1993 Canadian federal election

We investigated the effects of negative political advertising on evaluations of political party leaders. During the 1993 Canadian federal election, the Progressive Conservative party aired two advertisements highlighting the facial paralysis of Liberal leader Jean Chretien. A sample of 110 university students completed measures of attitudes, affective responses, and cognitive responses concerning Conservative leader Kim Campbell and Jean Chretien either before or after the airing of the advertisements. The results revealed that evaluations of Chretien became more positive after the broadcast of the advertisements, whereas evaluations of Campbell became more negative. A content analysis of participants' open-ended affective responses and stereotypic beliefs showed that those who participated after the advertisements' broadcast were (a) more likely to list positive feelings and attributes about Chretien and (b) more likely to list negative feelings about Campbell compared to those who participated beforehand.