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Fighting Fire with Fire: The Implications of (Not) Going Negative in a Multiparty Election Campaign

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 October 2016

Jason Roy  and
Christopher Alcantara
Jason Roy*
Affiliation:
Wilfrid Laurier University
Christopher Alcantara*
Affiliation:
University of Western Ontario
*
Department of Political Science, Wilfrid Laurier University, 75 University Ave W, Waterloo, ON N2L 3C5, Email: jroy@wlu.ca
Department of Political Science, University of Western Ontario, 1151 Richmond St, London, ON N6A 3K7, Email: calcanta@uwo.ca
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Abstract

This paper draws upon data collected from an online voting experiment to test the implications of “going negative” in a multiparty election campaign. Specifically, we investigate two sets of questions: First, does the attention and vote share that candidates receive vary according to the tone (positive/negative) of their election campaign? Second, does the attention and vote share that candidates receive vary according to whether or not all candidates engage in similar (positive/negative) campaigns? While studies of “negative campaigning” have been prominent in the American context, our work builds upon this literature by using an experimental design to test for their effects in a multiparty setting.

Résumé

Cet article se fonde sur des données recueillies lors d'une expérience de vote en ligne visant à mesurer les implications d'une « orientation négative » de la campagne dans une élection multipartite. Plus précisément, nous examinons deux séries de questions : premièrement, l'attention et les suffrages accordés aux candidats varient-ils en fonction du ton (positif/négatif) de leur campagne électorale ? Deuxièmement, l'attention et les suffrages accordés aux candidats varient- ils en fonction du fait que tous les candidats s'engagent ou non dans des campagnes (positives/négatives) analogues ? Même si les études sur les « campagnes négatives » tiennent une place importante dans le contexte américain, notre analyse s'inscrit dans le prolongement de ces travaux en adoptant un concept de recherche expérimentale qui vise à mesurer leurs effets dans un cadre multipartite.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique , Volume 49 , Issue 3 , September 2016 , pp. 473 - 497
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association (l'Association canadienne de science politique) and/et la Société québécoise de science politique 2016 

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