Aggressive political advertising harms candidates
Aggressive political advertising often costs election candidates votes. Campaigns that are too aggressive radicalize loyal voters, while undecided voters are quickly put off. As a result, only a fanatical but ever smaller group of people support a candidate. This is shown by a study by Dartmouth College .
"Election campaigns must pick up undecided voters where they stand. Thanks to social media, it is now very easy to take a differentiated view of voter groups and recognize exactly which issues they are dissatisfied with. Candidates can join forces with them in a targeted manner. Only once a consensus has been reached can they escalate or attack the content without being off-putting," communication expert Christian Scherg told the news portal Press release.
The researchers used data from the 2016 US presidential election to create a computer model that simulates social media users. The system analyzed the influence that political campaigns, personal opinions and social contacts have on voters. The results showed that extreme advertising scares away people with moderate views.
Fanatics scare off friends
Loyal supporters of a candidate, on the other hand, become more extreme themselves through aggressive campaigning, which is also reflected in their social networks. Fanatical voters can even put off their personal friends if they are politically more in the middle. And politicians who are too aggressive often fail to appeal to the masses and lose voters.
According to the computer model, however, even moderate people can end up in bubbles if they are only open to opinions that are similar to their own. The researchers warn that this leads to strong polarization and two extreme echo chambers facing each other that do not change their views. (pte)
