How Negative Propaganda Works: Evidence from a Survey Experiment in China

• In Event: Propaganda Strategies in China

Abstract

A burgeoning literature reveals that authoritarian regimes rely on positive propaganda to highlight their domestic governance performance to earn regime legitimacy. In this study, however, we examine how negative propaganda about foreign countries has been leveraged to achieve propaganda goals. Using the design of an online survey experiment, over 2000 respondents in China are exposed to authentic propaganda texts collected from state-backed social media accounts such as Global Times and People’s Daily. Relying on automated computer-assisted text classification, we divide these social media posts into two categories on three selected governance issues such as personal security, inflation, and drug problems. Categorization is based on the governance performance in which foreign governments are reported to fail to perform as “well” as the Chinese government in these issues.

The survey experiment results suggest that compared to positive propaganda complimenting the Chinese government’s achievements, negative propaganda is more effective in impacting respondents’ nationalist sentiment and behavior. Though negative propaganda has a limited effect on respondents’ evaluations of regime type, it can significantly increase respondents’ national pride and identity and improve perceptions of Chinese government performance and regime support, which is in contrast to theories that propaganda is unpersuasive.

By analyzing the different impacts of positive and negative propaganda campaigns, this study draws attention to how propaganda campaigns could shape national pride and identity and build up regime legitimacy by incorporating the concept of foreignness into propaganda. More importantly, studies on negative propaganda could yield critical insights into how propaganda campaigns construct public opinion.

Author

• Qingyan WANG, University of Georgia