IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0228185.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

(How) did attack advertisements increase Affordable Care Act enrollments?

Author

Listed:
  • Niam Yaraghi
  • Darrell M West
  • Ram D Gopal
  • Ram Ramesh

Abstract

We examine the effects of exposure to negative information in attack advertisements in the context of Affordable Care Act (ACA) and Common Core (CC) education standards and show that they lead to an increase in the ACA enrollments and support of the CC standards. To explain this effect, we rely on the knowledge-gap theory and show that individuals who were exposed to more attack advertisements were also more likely to independently seek information, become more knowledgeable, and consequently support these subjects. In addition to an observational study, to test our hypotheses on the link between exposure to negative information, curiosity, and shifts in knowledge and support levels, we design and conduct a randomized experiment using a sample of 300 unique individuals. Our multi-methods research contributes to marketing literature by documenting a rare occasion in which exposure to attack advertisements leads to increased demand and unveiling the mechanisms through which this effect takes place.

Suggested Citation

  • Niam Yaraghi & Darrell M West & Ram D Gopal & Ram Ramesh, 2020. "(How) did attack advertisements increase Affordable Care Act enrollments?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(2), pages 1-20, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0228185
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0228185
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0228185
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0228185&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0228185?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Danit Ein-Gar & Baba Shiv & Zakary L. Tormala, 2012. "When Blemishing Leads to Blossoming: The Positive Effect of Negative Information," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 38(5), pages 846-859.
    2. Jonah Berger & Alan T. Sorensen & Scott J. Rasmussen, 2010. "Positive Effects of Negative Publicity: When Negative Reviews Increase Sales," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(5), pages 815-827, 09-10.
    3. Ted Brader & Nicholas A. Valentino & Elizabeth Suhay, 2008. "What Triggers Public Opposition to Immigration? Anxiety, Group Cues, and Immigration Threat," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 52(4), pages 959-978, October.
    4. Joan M. Phillips & Joel E. Urbany & Thomas J. Reynolds, 2008. "Confirmation and the Effects of Valenced Political Advertising: A Field Experiment," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 34(6), pages 794-806, October.
    5. Dina Mayzlin & Jiwoong Shin, 2011. "Uninformative Advertising as an Invitation to Search," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(4), pages 666-685, July.
    6. Yanna Krupnikov, 2011. "When Does Negativity Demobilize? Tracing the Conditional Effect of Negative Campaigning on Voter Turnout," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 55(4), pages 797-813, October.
    7. David A. Reinstein & Christopher M. Snyder, 2005. "The Influence Of Expert Reviews On Consumer Demand For Experience Goods: A Case Study Of Movie Critics," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(1), pages 27-51, March.
    8. Joshua Clinton & John Lapinski, 2004. "Targeted advertising and voter turnout: An experimental study of the 2000 presidential election," Natural Field Experiments 00226, The Field Experiments Website.
    9. Ansolabehere, Stephen & Iyengar, Shanto & Simon, Adam & Valentino, Nicholas, 1994. "Does Attack Advertising Demobilize the Electorate?," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 88(4), pages 829-838, December.
    10. Gregory A. Huber & Kevin Arceneaux, 2007. "Identifying the Persuasive Effects of Presidential Advertising," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 51(4), pages 957-977, October.
    11. Bradley T. Shapiro, 2018. "Positive Spillovers and Free Riding in Advertising of Prescription Pharmaceuticals: The Case of Antidepressants," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 126(1), pages 381-437.
    12. Lerman, Amy E. & Sadin, Meredith L. & Trachtman, Samuel, 2017. "Policy Uptake as Political Behavior: Evidence from the Affordable Care Act," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 111(4), pages 755-770, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Brett Gordon & Mitchell Lovett & Ron Shachar & Kevin Arceneaux & Sridhar Moorthy & Michael Peress & Akshay Rao & Subrata Sen & David Soberman & Oleg Urminsky, 2012. "Marketing and politics: Models, behavior, and policy implications," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 391-403, June.
    2. Yanwen Wang & Michael Lewis & David A. Schweidel, 2018. "A Border Strategy Analysis of Ad Source and Message Tone in Senatorial Campaigns," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 37(3), pages 333-355, May.
    3. Michela Ponzo & Vincenzo Scoppa, 2015. "Experts’ awards and economic success: evidence from an Italian literary prize," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 39(4), pages 341-367, November.
    4. Vincenzo Galasso & Massimo Morelli & Tommaso Nannicini & Piero Stanig, 2022. "Fighting Populism on Its Own Turf: Experimental Evidence," CESifo Working Paper Series 9789, CESifo.
    5. Carlson, Keith & Kopalle, Praveen K. & Riddell, Allen & Rockmore, Daniel & Vana, Prasad, 2023. "Complementing human effort in online reviews: A deep learning approach to automatic content generation and review synthesis," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 54-74.
    6. Richard Friberg & Erik Grönqvist, 2012. "Do Expert Reviews Affect the Demand for Wine?," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 4(1), pages 193-211, January.
    7. Ruben Durante & Emilio Gutierrez, 2014. "Political Advertising and Voting Intention: Evidence from Exogenous Variation in Ads Viewership," Sciences Po publications info:hdl:2441/26lctatf2u8, Sciences Po.
    8. Imke Reimers & Joel Waldfogel, 2021. "Digitization and Pre-purchase Information: The Causal and Welfare Impacts of Reviews and Crowd Ratings," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(6), pages 1944-1971, June.
    9. Maximilian Maurice Gail & Phil-Adrian Klotz, 2021. "The Impact of the Agency Model on E-book Prices: Evidence from the UK," MAGKS Papers on Economics 202111, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    10. Ralf Dewenter & Ulrich Heimeshoff, 2015. "Do expert reviews really drive demand? Evidence from a German car magazine," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(14), pages 1150-1153, September.
    11. Stefano Dellavigna & Johannes Hermle, 2017. "Does Conflict of Interest Lead to Biased Coverage? Evidence from Movie Reviews," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 84(4), pages 1510-1550.
    12. Georg Goetz & Daniel Herold & Phil-Adrian Klotz & Jan Thomas Schaefer, 2020. "The Substitutability between Brick-and-Mortar Stores and e-Commerce - The Case of Books," MAGKS Papers on Economics 202011, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    13. Plotkina, Daria & Munzel, Andreas, 2016. "Delight the experts, but never dissatisfy your customers! A multi-category study on the effects of online review source on intention to buy a new product," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 1-11.
    14. Dina Mayzlin & Yaniv Dover & Judith Chevalier, 2014. "Promotional Reviews: An Empirical Investigation of Online Review Manipulation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(8), pages 2421-2455, August.
    15. Nunnari, Salvatore & Galasso, Vincenzo & Nannicini, Tommaso, 2020. "Positive Spillovers from Negative Campaigning," CEPR Discussion Papers 14312, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    16. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/26lctatf2u813of8nkn7j2230h is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Sofia B. Villas‐Boas & Céline Bonnet & James Hilger, 2021. "Random Utility Models, Wine and Experts," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 103(2), pages 663-681, March.
    18. Marco Caliendo & Michel Clement & Edlira Shehu, 2015. "The effect of individual professional critics on books’ sales: capturing selection biases from observable and unobservable factors," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 26(4), pages 423-436, December.
    19. Jiwoong Shin & Jungju Yu, 2021. "Targeted Advertising and Consumer Inference," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 40(5), pages 900-922, September.
    20. Brett R Gordon & Kinshuk Jerath & Zsolt Katona & Sridhar Narayanan & Jiwoong Shin & Kenneth C Wilbur, 2019. "Inefficiencies in Digital Advertising Markets," Papers 1912.09012, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2020.
    21. Kamal Bookwala & Caleb Gallemore & Joaquín Gómez‐Miñambres, 2022. "The influence of food recommendations: Evidence from a randomized field experiment," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 60(4), pages 1898-1910, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0228185. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.