Why a viable third party might lead to less negative political advertising in campaigns.

More than 80 percent of advertisements in political campaigns are negative; a type of messaging that is much less common in markets for consumer goods and services. Why is negativity so specific to political campaigns? In new research, Amit Gandhi, Daniela Iorio, and Carly Urban explain that the dual Democrat-Republican nature of US politics encourages candidates to go negative. They find that elections with two candidates are twice as likely to see negative ads compared to those with a greater number of candidates, and argue that the rise of a viable third party in the US might reduce the amount of attack advertising.