Ads, Public Opinion

Issue-specific political advertisements are ubiquitous during elections, and they’re often assumed to be effective in increasing voter turnout. Such ads frequently target specific groups — what political scientists sometimes call “issue publics” — such as veterans, parents or senior citizens.

That America has become more politically polarized in recent decades is a widely accepted notion, and though some observers dispute aspects of this trend, political scientists have found strong overall evidence to support it.

Campaign observers and citizens often complain about the effects of negative ads and their perceived damage to deliberative democracy. But the reality may be more complicated, and the true results of such ads may depend on more than just their emotional or critical tone.

How do negative campaigns affect voters? It’s a question political scientists have studied for decades.

From “death panels” and WMD claims to 9/11 conspiracies and falsehoods about President Obama’s religion, misinformation and unverified assertions play an outsized role in American public life and discourse.

The uses of science and its policy implications have always been filtered through American politics, but survey research has noted what some call an increasing “crisis of trust” in the core findings of science itself.

During the 1960s and 1970s, protest was central to American political discourse — against the Vietnam War, for the environment and women’s rights, against the abuse of political power. The Reagan years added social issues to the range of contentious subjects, but large-scale protest fell out of favor in the 1990s.