The tactics behind negative political ads

With the election just days away, the pace of negative political ads is picking up. The intent is to leave that lingering shadow of doubt about an opponent as voters head to the polls.

UNCW political scientist, Roger Lowry, told NewsChannel 3 such tactics go back to colonial times.

“Dirty politics is as old as American politics. It is nothing new. I think we will see a lot more negative ads in this final stretch,” said Lowry.

But do negative ads serve a purpose?

Lowry said, “There is a mixed set of result findings on that. In some cases negative ads can create a backlash against the intended beneficiaries. In other cases, negative ads do help. There is a fair amount of research that shows that negative ads do contain more issue content than ‘happier’ ads. So to that extent, they can serve a useful purpose to a discerning viewer.”