Student Researchers: Woong Yong Ha, Nokon Heo, & Ray Niekamp (PhD Students)
Faculty Supervisor: Dr. Shyam Sundar Sethuraman
Introduction
This study attempted to examine whether negative political advertisements that portray the candidate's rival (i.e., the targeted candidate) in black-and-white have an effect on viewers' perception as well as their likelihood of voting for the candidate. The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) of persuasion was used as a theoretical framework. The model states that highly involved people pay closer attention to issue-relevant materials while less involved people pay closer attention to simple cues(such as the presence of color) in the persuasion context.
Hypotheses
H1a: For high involvement people, attitudes toward a targeted political candidate will not be affected by the color of an attack ad.
H1b: For low involvement people, attitudes toward a targeted political candidate will be lower when an attack ad is presented in black and white than when it is presented in color.
H2a: For high involvement people, likelihood of voting for a targeted political candidate will not be affected by the color of an attack ad.
H2b: For low involvement people, likelihood of voting for a targeted political candidate will be lower when an attack ad is presented in black and white than when it is presented in color.
Method
Forty-eight participants were randomly assigned to one of two experimental conditions: black-and-white and color. Participants in both conditions saw a 20-minute segment of a television sitcom. In each of three commercial breaks, an attack ad from the 1996 U.S. Senate race in New Jersey was inserted as the second of three commercials. One group of participants saw the political ad run in its original full color version.
The other group saw the ad run in black and white.
After watching the tape, participants were asked a series of questions to determine their extent of involvement in politics, attitudes toward the targeted candidate, memory performance, and likelihood of voting for candidates.
Results
H1a. Supported. High involvement participants did not show any significant difference in their attitude toward the targeted candidate when color condition was manipulated, compared to low involvement participants.
H1b. Not supported. Low involvement participants rated the targeted candidate's character at almost the same level in the black and white condition as in the color condition. In fact, both high and low involvement participants who saw the black and white version of the videotape rated him at a slightly higher, but not significantly different, level than those who saw the color version.
H2a: Supported. High involvement participants showed somewhat less likelihood to vote for the targeted candidate in the black and white condition, but the difference between the color conditions was not significant.
H2b: Not supported. Low involvement participants showed about the same likelihood to vote for the targeted candidate regardless of color condition.
Other Findings
Participants in the color condition were more likely to think the targeted candidate is qualified to be Senator than those in the black and white condition.
Participants who saw the color version of the political commercial were significantly more likely to vote for the endorsing candidate.
There was a main effect for involvement on memory of the political ad. High involvement participants were more likely to remember the issues raised in the political ad than low involvement participants.
Conclusions
First, the Elaboration Likelihood Model was clearly not supported, although the last cited finding, that of memory of political ads as a function of involvement, would point in that direction. Second, color does seem to have an effect, although not quite in the expected direction. Rather than a black-and-white commercial leading to a lower opinion of the targeted candidate, this study finds that a color commercial works in favor of the attacking candidate. Thus negative political advertising does not seem to cause the intended effects on the voters.
For more details/information about this study, please contact:
Shyam Sundar Sethuraman
Associate Professor and Director
Media Effects Research Laboratory
College of Communications
Penn State University
University Park, PA 16802
Ph: (814) 865 2173
E-mail: sss12@psu.edu
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