How Language Can Influence Political Marketing Strategy and a Candidate's Image: Effect of Presidential Candidates' Language Intensity and Experience on College Students' Ratings of Source Credibility

The present study examines the effects of language intensity on presidential candidates' credibility. We manipulated language intensity levels and experience levels for hypothetical candidates for president of the United States. Manipulation checks confirmed the effectiveness of the experimenta...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of political marketing Vol. 15; no. 4; pp. 388 - 415
Main Authors Clementson, David E., Pascual-Ferrá, Paola, Beatty, Michael J.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Binghamton Routledge 01.10.2016
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Candidates
College students
Confirmatory factor analysis
Credibility
Effectiveness
Factor analysis
Language
language intensity
Manipulation
Marketing
Personality
Political advertising
Political campaigns
political marketing
presidential candidate
Presidential candidates
Presidential elections
source credibility
Variance analysis
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Summary:The present study examines the effects of language intensity on presidential candidates' credibility. We manipulated language intensity levels and experience levels for hypothetical candidates for president of the United States. Manipulation checks confirmed the effectiveness of the experimental conditions. The dimensions of source credibility, character, and authoritativeness were confirmed using confirmatory factor analysis. Analysis of variance indicated that candidates using low-intensity language received higher scores on character than did candidates using high-intensity language. Experienced candidates received higher scores on authoritativeness than did inexperienced candidates. Implications for political marketing of candidates are discussed.
ISSN:1537-7857
1537-7865
DOI:10.1080/15377857.2014.959689