Attack ads aim to encourage voter turnout, expert says

SALT LAKE CITY — Political attack ads have been on the rise as Election Day nears. However, a local political science expert said the attack ads are an effort to increase voter turnout.

Data from the Wesleyan Media Project found that candidates have increased the amount of attack ads over the past few months.

In the past week, only a very small percentage of pro-Harris ads were positive, with most of them falling into the contrast category. The Trump campaign split its ads between contrast ads and attack ads. pic.twitter.com/WiYgCtJBSZ

— WesleyanMediaProject (@wesmediaproject) October 31, 2024

 

Josh McCrain, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Utah, said it’s all part of an effort to increase turnout amongst a candidate’s base.

“That’s what a campaign’s goal is at this stage… the people who they think are already supporters but are, for whatever reason, not necessarily super enthusiastic about going to vote. That’s who campaigns target [this] late.”

Political attack ads are made to fire up a candidate’s supporters.

“There’s a lot of research that shows that a very effective way to fire up your party’s really strong partisans, your loyal base partisans, is to invoke fear and anger.”

McCrain said creating fear and anger in the other party can encourage someone to vote against them.

“It’s not really so much how much you like your party, it’s how much you hate the other party.”

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