Campaign Advertisements' Impact on Voter Certainty and Knowledge of House Candidates' Ideological Positions

One expectation for American election campaigns is that they inform citizens about candidates' policy inclinations, clarifying the policy directions advocated by the major party nominees. Evidence from the 1998 elections to the House of Representatives indicates that the more negative issue advertisements were broadcast, the more confident citizens became that they knew the targeted candidate's ideological position. However, the more negative issue advertisements about a candidate aired, the greater citizens' perceptual error of the candidate's ideological position. Issue attack ads lead citizens to believe they know more than they actually do, failing to produce the democratic ideal of an informed electorate.