Is Negative Campaigning a Matter of Taste? Political Attacks, Incivility, and the Moderating Role of Individual Differences
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6180347 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Alessandro Nai (0000-0001-7303-2693, Amsterdam University of the Arts, corresponding author), J Maier (0000-0001-8301-5125, University of Koblenz and Landau) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 49 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 269-281 |
| Publication date | 2021-05-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Politics Research (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1532-673X • E-ISSN: 1552-3373 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/1532673x20965548 |
| OpenAlex | W3093715574 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 34 |
| References cited | 63 |
We test how individual differences moderate the attitudinal effects of attack politics in two online experiments among US respondents, surveyed through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk ( N = 1,408 and N = 1,081). Study 1 tests the moderating effect of personality traits (Big Five, Dark Triad) on the effectiveness of character vs. policy attacks. Study 2 investigates the difference between civil and uncivil attacks and explores the moderating effect of Big Five, Dark Triad, tolerance to negativity and conflict avoidance. Results suggest that the effects of negativity and incivility are not uniform across all respondents. For instance, evaluations of the sponsor are more negative after exposure to negative messages for respondents high in conflict avoidance; respondents high in psychopathy are more likely to have a more negative opinion of the target after being exposed to character attacks, whereas incivility worsen the perception of the target for individuals low in conflict avoidance and agreeableness. Harsher campaigns, in other terms, work particularly well for some – and are particularly rejected by others. The implications of these trends are discussed
Agreeableness · Big Five personality traits · Dark triad · Extraversion and introversion · Incivility · Machiavellianism · Negativity effect · Perception · Personality · Political science · Politics · Psychopathy · Terrorism · Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection · Personality Traits and Psychology · Psychology · Social and Intergroup Psychology · Social Psychology
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Higher-order factors of the Big Five
Risk taking and personality
An evaluation of the consequences of using short measures of the Big Five personality traits
The Montagu Principle
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| Unique citing works | 34 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 6,8 |
| Citation span | 2021 - 2026 (6) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 33 |