Campaigning for Hearts and Minds: How Emotional Appeals in Political Ads Work (Studies in Communication, Media, and Public Opinion) | 
|  | | | Title: | Campaigning for Hearts and Minds: How Emotional Appeals in Political Ads Work (Studies in Communication, Media, and Public Opinion) | | Author: | Ted Brader | | Publisher: | University Of Chicago Press | | Type: | Book / Paperback | | Publication Date: | 01 January, 2006 | | ISBN / ISBN-13: | 0226069893 / 9780226069890 | | List Price: | $26.00 | | You Save: | $2.60 | | Amazon Price: | $23.40 | |
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Product Description
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.
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Customer Reviews:
• Telling Exploration Of Emotion And Political Campaigns 18 August, 2007
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.
- Reviewed by customer ID: AQQLWCMRNDFGI
• Academic Insights Meet Practical Application 27 February, 2006
Ted Brader's "Campaigning for Hearts and Minds: How Emotional Appeals in Political Ads Work" drives yet another nail into the coffin of academic wisdom that voters are either rational decision-makers or complacent habit-following creatures by providing compelling evidence for the role of emotions in political campaigns. Building off of George Marcus, Russell Neuman and Michael MacKuens' model of "Affective Intelligence", Ted Brader applies the rarely employed experimental method to "everyday people" during a Massachusetts gubernatorial campaign to explicate the process and outcome of their viewing televised political advertisements of differing emotional content and tone. Brader then carries out a content analysis of 1,565 political advertisements from the 2004 election to provide insights as to how the emotions of enthusiasm and fear are used to influence potential voters. His often counter-intuitive experimental findings on how subtle visual and audio cues affect voters' emotions, especially those of informed and interested voters, makes this book required reading for those interested in the "real world" of politics and campaigning. His content analysis findings reinforce his experimental findings by illustrating how political advertisements are used in political campaigns across the United States. In sum, this book is a must-read for anyone interested in learning how emotions influence politics by substantially advancing our understanding of how emotions drive our political thoughts, decisions, and actions.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A2ZS71SDMZBT6
• Interesting Book 06 August, 2007
Although it has to do mainly with the US political reality, there are interesting views useful for those from other countries.
It could be a little thinner if the author didn't reiterate some points more than twice, but it's an interesting and fun read.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A1BR9LRC4F1DWH
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