I have written about political scandal before, but that research seems outdated in today’s political landscape.
Today’s landscape seems bi-polar. Sometime scandal will drive people from office to resign in shame- Sen Franken, Gov Sanford – while other times it just doesn’t POTUS, Gov Northam, Roy Moore.
Where is the line? I am not sure I can answer that, but I did come across a study by Dona-Gene Mitchell in Political Psychology entitled: “Here Today, Gone Tomorrow? Assessing How Timing and Repetition of Scandal Information Affects Candidate Evaluations” (someone on twitter linked to it, and for the life of me I can’t remember who – but I thank them.)
We remember from other blog posts, voters remember negative information more easily and weigh it more heavily.
This specific study uses a panel experiment to look at timing effects. It is an interesting study, but the main criticism is that it assumes media coverage.
Frankly, with today’s state of journalism at the local level NONE of these findings may be applicable. But that is a screed for another day.
Bottom line: scandal matters, but just it REALLY matters when the press covers it AND new information drips out.
Seems like voters punish a candidate for the first hit, but after than voters reach a saturation point and repetition doesn’t really matter than much.
HOWEVER, if NEW information drips out with repetitions of the initial claim, voters will update their perceptions.
When ongoing scandal coverage fails to reveal new details, voters may eventually tune out repeated references to the candidate’s misconduct.”
In addition, the study finds that timing matters a lot because scandal effects decay rapidly – especially late in the campaign.
It is an interesting read, and I suggest you give it a go. Here is a link to the study: Here Today, Gone Tomorrow?
I am interested – what if anything is disqualifying in today’s political climate?
PS – A major takeaway for clients and potential clients: if you have scandalous information best to hang a light on it, early AND make sure you hold nothing back.
