Political Marketing: Structural Models of Advertising Influence and Voter Behavior

Abstract

Research on the influence of political advertising, the role of media, and the roles of affect and the cognitive organization of political reality in controlling voter behavior often overlooks a fundamental regularity in human behavior. Humans perceive political events in causal relationships. The image of a politician is related to people's feelings toward him or her, and the two influence each other during the political advertising experience. The resulting mutual causal relationship determines a voter's choice behavior, the perception of the function of the media in political campaigns, and the affect toward a politician's voting record. Such a causal analysis allows a test of two approaches by which voters organize political reality: the realist and constructivist. It also can be used for more detailed cross-cultural comparisons. This study analyzes these issues based on the sequential model of the influence of advertising on voting behaviors and the structural model of voter's choice behavior in Poland and the United States. © 2012 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.