Making words harmless: Why politicians survive character assassination attacks

Character assassination, a specific type of negative campaigning, has been intensely investigated through the lenses of the circumstances and content of attacks. However, we know little about why some politicians survive and others do not. The present article addresses this gap in the literature and identifies the reasons for political survival following character assassination attempts. It compares 20 cases from the last two decades and uses qualitative comparative analysis to test the effect of five potential causes: power relations, gender, response, media coverage and the complexity of the attack. The results indicate that male politicians who face attacks from the same level of power, those who adjust their response to the attack’s complexity, and cases where the media do not extensively cover the attack all have higher chances of survival. The findings broaden the understanding of the character assassination dynamics and ways of protection against it.