Political Awareness, Microtargeting of Voters, and Negative Electoral Campaigning

Bibliographic Data

ID12802483
AuthorsBurkhard C Schipper (0000-0001-9120-7389, corresponding author), Hee Yeul Woo
Year2019
Volume14
Issue1
Pages41-88
Publication date2019-01-11
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueQuarterly Journal of Political Science (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1554-0626 • E-ISSN: 1554-0634
PublisherNow Publishers (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1561/100.00016066
OpenAlexW3123880809
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited50

We study the informational effectiveness of electoral campaigns. Voters may not think about all political issues and have incomplete information with regard to political positions of candidates. Nevertheless, we show that if candidates are allowed to microtarget voters with messages then election outcomes are as if voters have full awareness of political issues and complete information about candidates’ political positions. Political competition is paramount for overcoming voters’ limited awareness of political issues but unnecessary for overcoming just uncertainty about candidates’ political positions. Our optimistic results break down if microtargeting is not allowed or voters lack political reasoning abilities. In such cases, negative campaigning comes to rescue, at least in the majoritarian model

Competition (biology · Economics · Ideology · Motivated reasoning · Political communication · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Position (finance · Public relations · Sociology · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Media Influence and Politics · Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence

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Open DOISci-HubOpen Access