Does negative campaigning influence the likelihood of voting in elections? Our study of U.S. Senate campaigns indicates the answer is “yes.” We find that people distinguish between useful negative information presented in an appropriate manner and irrelevant and harsh mudslinging. As the proportion of legitimate criticisms increases in campaigns, citizens become more likely to cast ballots. When campaigns degenerate into unsubstantiated and shrill attacks, voters tend to stay home. Finally, we find that individuals vary in their sensitivity to the tenor of campaigns. In particular, the tone is more consequential for independents, for those with less interest in politics, and for those with less knowledge about politics.

Estud. mensaje period. 22 (2) Resumen. El presente trabajo analiza la opinión expresada en los artículos editoriales de ocho diarios españoles sobre la abdicación de Juan Carlos I y su relevo por Felipe VI. Los temas estudiados son el reinado de Juan Carlos I; la monarquía como institución; el proceso sucesorio; el nuevo rey, Felipe VI, así como, en este contexto, la incidencia del movimiento soberanista en Cataluña. Los diarios seleccionados son los cuatro principales editados en Madrid y Barcelona, respectivamente. El contenido de los editoriales se estudia a través de una metodología diseñada ad-hoc basada en el análisis de textos. Los resultados muestran notables diferencias entre la prensa madrileña y la barcelonesa, y la fuerte influencia del contexto político-cultural en las decisiones de los periódicos en relación con el número y el contenido de los editoriales. Palabras clave: Juan Carlos I; Felipe VI; periódicos; editoriales; análisis de contenido.[en] The Succession of Felipe VI to the Spanish Throne, Following Juan Carlos I. Content Analysis of the Editorial Articles Published by the Newspapers of Madrid and BarcelonaAbstract. This paper analyses the views expressed in the editorial articles of eight Spanish newspapers on the abdication of Juan Carlos I and his replacement by Felipe VI. The studied issues are the reign of Juan Carlos I; the monarchy as an institution; the succession process; the new king Felipe VI and, in this context, the impact of the sovereignty movement in Catalonia. The selected newspapers are the main four published in Madrid and Barcelona, respectively. The editorial content is studied through an ad hoc designed methodology based on text analysis. The results show significant differences between the press of Madrid and Barcelona, and the strong influence of the political and cultural context in newspapers' decisions regarding the number and the content of the editorials.

Do negative advertisements lower voters' evaluations of the targeted candidate? We theorize that there is much to be gained by examining the variance in the content and tone of negative campaign messages and the variance in voters' sensitivity to negative political rhetoric. We employ data from the 2006 Cooperative Congressional Election Study to investigate the impact of negative campaigning in U.S. Senate campaigns. We sampled 1,045 respondents in 21 of the 28 U.S. Senate races featuring a majority party incumbent and challenger. In addition to the survey data, we collected contextual data regarding the political advertisements aired during the campaigns and the news coverage of these campaigns in state newspapers. The evidence suggests that the impact of negative information is multifaceted, and under some circumstances, substantial. We find that uncivil and relevant negative messages are the most powerful, especially for people with less tolerance for negative political rhetoric.

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In this article, we rely on data from the 2006 Cooperative Congressional Election Study (CCES) to examine the impact of gender for U.S. senators running for reelection. We propose a theoretical explanation for why an incumbent's gender may influence how citizens evaluate senators, and we present empirical evidence showing that people develop distinct impressions of men and women senators during campaigns. In the 2006 election cycle, women senators were viewed more positively than their male counterparts. Some of the advantages women senators enjoyed were consistent with established gender stereotypes. In particular, women senators were viewed as more honest and more caring than male senators. Moreover, women senators were viewed as more competent at dealing with health-care issues. However, we did not find evidence for gender stereotypes that traditionally produce more positive views of male senators. For example, we did not find that male senators were viewed as stronger leaders or more experienced than women senators. People did not view male senators as better able to deal with economic issues.T he number of women holding prestigious elective office in the United States has changed dramatically over the last 30 years. For example, 25 women contested seats for the U.S. Senate in the 1980s. However, only two of the 25 women (8%) were successful: Senator Barbara Mikulski, who ran against another woman in an open seat, and Senator Nancy Kassebaum, who won reelection. In the following decade, the number of women contesting U.S. Senate seats almost doubled to 47 women candidates.

In this paper, we examine whether the impact of negative advertising on citizens' evaluations of candidates depends on the gender of the candidates. Given common gender stereotypes, we expect negative campaigning aimed at women candidates will affect citizens differently than negative campaigning against male candidates. The results of our study, derived from a survey experiment conducted on a nationwide sample of more than 700 citizens, demonstrate that negative commercials are less effective at depressing evaluations of woman candidates, compared to male candidates. The findings are consistent and strong, across a range of forces that people use to assess competing candidates (i.e., affect and trait evaluations, people's beliefs about issues, anticipated vote choice). The tight control of the experimental design, including randomization of respondents into different conditions that vary in only one way, demonstrates that the gender of the candidate influences people's reactions to different types of negative commercials.