Replicating Experiments Using Aggregate and Survey Data: The Case of Negative Advertising and Turnout.(Statistical Data Included)

The authors evaluate the external validity of experiments on the demobilizing and alienating effects of negative political campaigning. Further research indicates that negative advertising results in lower turnout rates for voters.

Experiments show significant demobilizing and alienating effects of negative advertising. Although internally valid, experiments may have limited external validity. Aggregate and survey data offer two ways of providing external validation for experiments. We show that survey recall measures of advertising exposure suffer from problems of internal validity due ...

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