It's Time to Vote: The Effect of Matching Message Orientation and Temporal Frame on Political Persuasion

What political candidates say during their campaign and when they say it are critical to their success. In three experiments, we show that abstract, “why”-laden appeals are more persuasive than concrete, “how”-laden appeals when voters ’ decision is temporally distant; the reverse is true when the decision is imminent, and these results are strongest among those who are politically uninformed. These effects seem to be driven by a match between temporal distance and the abstractness of the message that leads to perceptions of fluency, and the ensuing “feels right” experience yields enhanced evaluations of the focal stimulus. With the increased penetration of cable television, talkradio, and Web logs (popularly referred to as blogs), the coverage of political topics and campaigns appears to be ubiquitous and incessant. This expansion of media out-lets, with the accompanying increase in media coverage, is having a predictable effect on political expenditures as well. For instance, the Federal Election Commission reports that the 1996 presidential campaign pitting Clinton against Dole cost 449 million, the 2000 campaign featuring Bush and Gore cost 649. 5 million, and the 2004 contest between Bush and Kerry cost over 1 billion