ATTACK ADS AND VOTER TURNOUT
3 possible reasons suggested for negative ads decreasing turnout
-discourage supporters of attacked candidate -make public disenchanted with both candidates -decrease civic duty and perceived legitimacy of election process
current literature on attack ads and voter turnout:
mixed results; not entirely certain of decrease
what are attack ads?
political ads that primarily concentrate on the flaws of a candidate's opponent rather than the strengths of a candidate
Ansolabehere and Iyengar categorized tone of elections as positive, negative or mixed and voter turnout: results
positive: 57% turnout mixed: 52.4% turnout negative: 49.7% turnout -statistically significant