Campaigning for Hearts and Minds: How Emotional Appeals in Political Ads Work

Studies in Communication, Media, and Public Opinion

by Ted Brader

It is common knowledge that televised political ads are meant to appeal to voters' emotions, yet little is known about how or if these tactics actually work. Ted Brader's innovative book is the first scientific study to examine the effects that these emotional appeals in political advertising have on voter decision-making. 

At the heart of this book are ingenious experiments, conducted by Brader during an election, with truly eye-opening results that upset conventional wisdom. They show, for example, that simply changing the music or imagery of ads while retaining the same text provokes completely different responses. He reveals that politically informed citizens are more easily manipulated by emotional appeals than less-involved citizens and that positive "enthusiasm ads" are in fact more polarizing than negative "fear ads." Black-and-white video images are ten times more likely to signal an appeal to fear or anger than one of enthusiasm or pride, and the emotional appeal triumphs over the logical appeal in nearly three-quarters of all political ads.

Brader backs up these surprising findings with an unprecedented survey of emotional appeals in contemporary political campaigns. Politicians do set out to campaign for the hearts and minds of voters, and, for better or for worse, it is primarily through hearts that minds are won. Campaigning for Hearts and Minds will be indispensable for anyone wishing to understand how American politics is influenced by advertising today.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, Political Science

280 pages, Paperback

First published December 15, 2005

Reviews

[Steven Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent book. The general audience may find the statistical discussion somewhat slow going, but this is not a turgidly written academic tome. At the same time, it is a solid academic work. His takeoff point (page 2): ". . .the motivational and persuasive power of campaign advertising depends considerably on whether an ad appeals to fear or enthusiasm." He contends that emotional appeals built into campaign ads makes them more effective--the mixture of a political message plus emotion can be powerful if crafted well.

His experiments make it clear that mixing emotions (whether enthusiasm or fear) with a political message has impacts--whether those effects be simple reactions to ads or stimulating interest in the campaign or motivating viewers to want to get out and vote on election day.

This is all, according to the author, counter to much standard political science research that, in the near past, argued that media had only "minimal effects." Brader's work, and that of others, surely suggests that this judgment is much overstated. Media can, indeed, have measurable political effects. This book is one addition to that important correction of the old standard wisdom in the study of politics.

The book is also worth looking at because of its notice of the relevance of psychology and the neurosciences for understanding why emotional elements in political ads can have such an effect. This demonstrates powerfully the importance of cross-disciplinary research.

Final judgment? For those interested in the effects of emotion on politics, this is yet another nice addition to the library.

[Jordan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the best work I've read on American political ads, largely because it steps away from the literature of American political ads. It's blend of psychology and politics is very dense, but insightful. Some of his conclusions are too broad for his data, as is often the case, but he makes no claim to be the definitive reading and offers several ideas for further study.

[Charlie · Rating 3 out of 5]

My Pol Sci teacher wrote this..go figure

[Iriana · Rating 1 out of 5]

Extremely repetitive. Didn't like it at all.