To what extent do authoritarianism and violent political discourse influence voting intention and campaign engagement of right-wing candidates? A vignettes experiment

Clayton Pereira Gonçalves, Eduardo André Teixeira Ayrosa
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21529/RECADM.2022015

Abstract

The Brazilian elections of 2018, 2020, and 2022 were marked by aggressive and violent (mainly speech) acts coming from candidates and reproduced by voters. Such acts often had the object of attacking the opposing ideological field in the intention of getting votes and engagement. But, are such discursive strategies effective? In an attempt to answer this question, in this study we sought to analyze to what extent authoritarianism and violent political discourse influenced the voting intention and campaign engagement of right-wing discourse candidates. To this end, we conducted an experiment with vignettes among 273 subjects in the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro State, which were divided into two groups randomized by propensity score matching: a control group whose text refers to a non-violent discourse; and a control group, whose text has a more violent tone. The results indicate that violent political discourse reduces voting intention, but when mediated by voting intention, violent political discourse generates greater engagement in the candidate's campaign. Finally, the results indicate that voters with a higher degree of authoritarianism tend to be more engaged and have higher voting intention, just as voters with a higher interest in politics tend to be more engaged.


Keywords

political marketing; violent political discourse; authoritarianism; voting intention; political engagement

Compartilhe

References


Altemeyer, B. (1981). Right-wing authoritarianism. Winipeg: University of Manitoba Press.

Altemeyer, B. (1996). The authoritarian specter. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

Altemeyer, B. (1998). The other “authoritarian personality”. Advances in experimental social psychology, 30, 47-92.

Altemeyer, B. (2006). The authoritarians. Winipeg: University of Manitoba Press.

Adorno, T. W.; Frenkel-Brunswik .; Levinson, D. J. & Sanford, R. N. (1950). The authoritarian personality. New York: Harper and Brothers.

Alwin, D. F. & Krosnick, J. A. (1991). The reliability of survey attitude measurement: the influence of question and respondent attributes, in: Sociological Methods & Research, 20, 1, 139–181.

Apter D. (1993). Democracy, violence and emancipatory movements: notes for a theory of inversionary discourse. United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, (44),43 Geneva.

Arendt, H. (2013). Eichmann em Jerusalém: um relato sobre a banalidade do mal. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras.

Ayrosa, E. A. T. (2006). Measuring enduring involvement in Brazilian Portuguese. Revista de Administração FACES Journal, 5(3), 27-40.

Barbiéri, L. F. & Falcão, M. (2020). Abstenção é de 23,14% no 1º turno, anuncia TSE; percentual foi 20,33% em 2018 e 17,58% em 2016. Recuperado em: 07 jan.2022, de . G1. Rio de Janeiro.

Baron, R. M. & Kenny, D. A. (1986). The moderator–mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of personality and social psychology, 51(6),1173.

Bell, E., Bryman, A., & Harley, B. (2022). Business research methods. Oxford university press.

Berinsky, A. J., Margolis, M. F., & Sances, M. W. (2014). Separating the shirkers from the workers? Making sure respondents pay attention on self‐administered surveys. American Journal of Political Science, 58(3), 739-753.

Blumler, J., & Gurevitch, M. (1995). The crisis of public communication. Routledge.

Boas, T. C. (2014). Pastor Paulo vs. Doctor Carlos: professional titles as voting heuristics in Brazil. Journal of Politics in Latin America, 6(2), 39-72.

Brasil, C. D. C. (2016). Critério de classificação econômica Brasil. Associação Brasileira de Empresas de Pesquisa (ABEP).

Burgette, L., Griffin, B. A., & McCaffrey, D. (2017). Propensity scores for multiple treatments: A tutorial for the mnps function in the twang package. R package. Rand Corporation.

Castro, M. M. M. de (1994). Determinantes do comportamento eleitoral: a centralidade da sofisticação política. Instituto Universitário de Pesquisas do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro: Tese de Doutorado.

Cohrs, J. C., & Asbrock, F. (2009). Right‐wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation and prejudice against threatening and competitive ethnic groups. European Journal of Social Psychology, 39(2), 270-289.

Converse, P. E. (1962). Information flow and the stability of partisan attitudes. Public opinion quarterly, 26(4), 578-599.

Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2021). Projeto de pesquisa-: métodos qualitativo, quantitativo e misto. Penso Editora.

Cwalina, W., Falkowski, A., & Newman, B. I. (2015). Political marketing: theoretical and strategic foundations. Routledge.

De Alvarenga, L. F. C., Nina, C. H., Yassin, N., Beirigo, L. V., Oliveira, M. G. M., & Alves, M. S. (2014). Perfil religioso do eleitorado de Rio Verde–GO nas eleições municipais de 2012. Revista da Universidade Vale do Rio Verde, 12(2), 46-50.

Duckitt, J., & Sibley, C. G. (2010). Personality, ideology, prejudice, and politics: A dual‐process motivational model. Journal of personality, 78(6), 1861-1894.

Elms, A. C., & Milgram, S. (1966). Personality characteristics associated with obedience and defiance toward authoritative command. Journal of Experimental Research in Personality.

Etchezahar, E., & Cervone, N. (2011). El estudio del autoritarismo en el continuo ideológico-político. Anuario de investigaciones, 18, 243-248.

Everett, J. A. (2013). The 12 item social and economic conservatism scale (SECS). PloS one, 8(12), e82131.

Figueiredo, R. (Ed.). (2000). Marketing político e persuasão eleitoral (pp. 147-203). Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung.

Gerbaudo, P., Marogna, F., & Alzetta, C. (2019). When “positive posting” attracts voters: user engagement and emotions in the 2017 UK election campaign on Facebook. Social Media+ Society, 5(4), 2056305119881695.

Gonçalves, C. P., & Ayrosa, E. A. T. (2020). Do marketing político ao autoritarismo: um olhar sobre os discursos de votação do impeachment de Dilma Rousseff. Revista FSA (Centro Universitário Santo Agostinho), 17(2), 3-23.

Hayes, A. F. (2022). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis Third Edition: a Regression-Based Approach. New York: Guilford Press.

Hair, J. F., Black, W. C., Babin, B. J. & Anderson, R. E. (2019). Multivariate data analysis (Eighth). Cengage Learning EMEA.

Havitz, M. E., & Mannell, R. C. (2005). Enduring involvement, situational involvement, and flow in leisure and non-leisure activities. Journal of Leisure Research, 37(2), 152-177.

Hennes, E. P., Nam, H. H., Stern, C., & Jost, J. T. (2012). Not all ideologies are created equal: epistemic, existential, and relational needs predict system-justifying attitudes. Social Cognition, 30(6), 669.

Jin, H. S., An, S., & Simon, T. (2009). Beliefs of and attitudes toward political advertising: An exploratory investigation. Psychology & Marketing, 26(6), 551-568.

Jost, J. T. (2017). Ideological asymmetries and the essence of political psychology. Political psychology, 38(2), 167-208.

Kaid, L. L. (2009). Political management and political communications. In Routledge Handbook of Political Management (pp. 57-66). Routledge.

Kotler, P. (1975). Overview of political candidate marketing. ACR North American Advances, 2, 761-770.

Kotler, P., & Levy, S. J. (1969). Broadening the concept of marketing. Journal of marketing, 33(1), 10-15.

Lazarsfeld, P. F., Berelson, B., & Gaudet, H. (1948). The people’s choice. Columbia University Press.

Luskin, R. C. (1987). Measuring political sophistication. American journal of political science, 856-899.

Marland, A. (2003). Marketing political soap: a political marketing view of selling candidates like soap, of electioneering as a ritual, and of electoral military analogies. Journal of Public Affairs: An International Journal, 3(2), 103-115.

Mathur, A., & Moschis, G. P. (2022). How do information sources shape voters’ political views?: comparing mainstream and social-media effects on democrats, republicans, and the undecided. Journal of Advertising Research, 62(2), 176-195.

Mauser, G. A. (1983). Political marketing: an approach to campaign strategy. New York, NY, USA: Praeger.

McNair, B. (2017). An introduction to political communication. Routledge.

Meadow, R. G. (2009). Political violence and the media. Marq. L. Rev., 93, 231.

Mundim, P. S. (2010). Um modelo para medir os efeitos da cobertura da imprensa no voto: teste nas eleições de 2002 e 2006. Opinião Pública, 16, 394-425.

Neuman, W. R. (1986). The paradox of mass politics: knowledge and opinion in the American electorate. Harvard University Press.

Newman, B. I. (1994). The marketing of the president: political marketing as campaign strategy. Sage.

Oliveira, M., Almeida, C. M., & Mainardes, E. W. (2022). Politics and social media: an analysis of factors anteceding voting intention. International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, 19(2), 309-332.

O’cass, A. (1996). Political marketing and the marketing concept. European Journal of Marketing, 30(10/11), 37-53.

Oppenheimer, D. M., Meyvis, T., & Davidenko, N. (2009). Instructional manipulation checks: Detecting satisficing to increase statistical power. Journal of experimental social psychology, 45(4), 867-872.

Pereira, C., & Melo, M. A. (2015). Reelecting corrupt incumbents in exchange for public goods: Rouba mas faz in Brazil. Latin American Research Review, 88-115.

Pereira, F. B. (2013). Sofisticação política e opinião pública no Brasil: revisitando hipóteses clássicas. Opinião Pública, 19, 291-319.

Pimentel Junior, J. T. P. (2010). Razão e emoção: o voto na eleição presidencial de 2006. Opinião Pública, 16, 516-541.

Porto, M. S. G. (2015). A violência, entre práticas e representações sociais: uma trajetória de pesquisa. Sociedade e Estado, 30, 19-37.

Putte, B. V. D. Advertising Strategies. (2008). In: Donsbach, W. The international encyclopedia of communication. Wiley Publishing.

Rancière, J. (1996). O desentendimento . Editora 34.

Sammut, G. (2015). Attitudes, social representations and points of view. In: Sammut, G.; Andreouli, E., Gaskell, G. & Valsiner, J. Cambridge Handbooks in Psychology. Cambribdge: Cambribdge University Press.

Scotto, G. (2003). Encontros e desencontros entre a política e o mercado: uma antropologia das" trocas" no espaço do marketing político. Horizontes Antropológicos, 9, 49-78.

Souza, C. R. P. (2015). O voto da cor: um racismo estrutural com particularidades na escolha dos negros? Tese de Doutorado. Instituto de Estudos Sociais e Políticos (IESP). Rio de Janeiro.

Sterling, J., Jost, J. T., & Shrout, P. E. (2016). Mortality salience, system justification, and candidate evaluations in the 2012 US presidential election. PloS one, 11(3), e0150556.

Stone, G. W., Blodgett, J. G., Nkonge, J., & Cort, K. T. (2013). The moderating influence of political involvement on voters' attitudes toward attack Ads. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 21(1), 91-102.

Tesser, A. (1993). The importance of heritability in psychological research: the case of attitudes. Psychological review, 100(1), 129.

Thiollent, M. (1986). Opinião pública e debates politicos (subsídios metodologicos). Ed. Polis.

Tingley, D., Yamamoto, T., Hirose, K., Keele, L., Imai, K., & Yamamoto, M. T. (2019). Package ‘mediation’. Computer software manual.

Van Dijk, T. A. (1997). What is political discourse analysis. Belgian journal of linguistics, 11(1), 11-52.

Yarchi, M., Wolfsfeld, G., & Samuel-Azran, T. (2021). Not all undecided voters are alike: Evidence from an Israeli election. Government Information Quarterly, 38(4), 101598.

Yoon, K., Pinkleton, B. E., & Ko, W. (2005). Effects of negative political advertising on voting intention: An exploration of the roles of involvement and source credibility in the development of voter cynicism. Journal of marketing communications, 11(2), 95-112.

Yoris-Villasana, C. (2012). Violencia y falacias en el discurso político. Comunicación: estudios venezolanos de comunicación, (158), 44-47.

Zaichkowsky, J. L. (1985). Measuring the involvement construct. Journal of consumer research, 12(3), 341-352.

Zizek, S. (2014). Violência: seis reflexões laterais. Boitempo Editorial.




Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.