One’s Loss is Another’s Gain? The Role of Message Framing, Information Type, and Political Ideology in Political Advertising

Many political advertisements emphasise the benefits on offer if you vote, or the possible consequences if you don’t. The abstractness (i.e., presentation in a vague way) and concreteness (i.e., presentation in a specific way) also varies across political advertisements. To date, minimal research has examined the effectiveness of gain versus loss framed messages and abstract versus concrete appeals in political advertising. Moreover, little is known about how these effects differ between liberal (i.e., left-wing) and conservative (i.e., right-wing) political ideologies.

Building upon message framing and construal level theory, this paper examines the interplay of message framing (gain versus loss) and information type (abstract versus concrete) on attitude towards the ad, message persuasiveness, and ad-brand congruence. It also investigates the moderating role of political ideology (liberal versus conservative) on these main effects. A 2 (message framing: gain versus loss) × 2 (information type: abstract versus concrete) between-subjects experiment (n = 809) was conducted, in which individual differences in political ideology were measured.

Findings from this research offer valuable contributions through the extension of message framing and construal level theory to the nascent but influential field of political advertising. Contrary to expectations, the results revealed that gain (versus loss) framed advertisements are more effective in political advertising. Concrete (versus abstract) appeals also resulted in more positive attitudes towards the ad and greater message persuasiveness, but no difference in ad-brand congruence. This indicated that concrete appeals were more effective, but not perceived to be better suited to participants’ preferred political party. Additionally, political ideology moderated the effects of message framing. That is, despite gain frames being more effective overall, loss frames were more effective among conservatives than liberals.

These findings contribute to message framing research and construal level theory. Findings also provide practical implications; gain (versus loss) frames and concrete (versus abstract) appeals are independently more effective in political advertising. However, if an advertiser were to use a loss frame, it would be better received among conservatives rather than among liberals.