Cynical Appeals in American Political Advertising

Abstract

Political cynicism is an on-going theoretical concern of scholars who study voting behavior. While it is often assumed that cynicism reduces people’s involvement in politics, the evidence for this claim is inconsistent. Moreover, what activates cynicism in voters is not well understood. This paper examines how campaigns try to appeal to voters’ cynicism in their political advertising. We develop a new measure of appeals to cynicism and explore such appeals in ads aired during the 2008 U.S. Senate elections. We examine both frequency of use and the circumstances under which cynicism appeals are more likely to be used. We find that appeals to cynicism are common and are even more likely to occur in competitive races. Most often, ad sponsors target the opponent with the cynical appeal, though strategies differ for incumbents and challengers. While incumbents target their opponents, challengers are more likely to be cynical about politicians and the government in general.

Keywords: political campaigns, cynicism, participation, ads, Congressional elections