Name Calling: How Calling Opponents Names Influences Candidate Evaluations

• In Event: Polarization and Ethnocentrism

Brief Overview

One of Donald Trump’s most unorthodox political innovations has been calling anyone who disagrees with him names. We test its effectiveness through a survey experiment and find that these types of attacks often backfire on the attacker.

Authors

• Aaron Dusso, Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis

• Sydnee Perkins, Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis