Negativity and Failed Expectations: do Representatives' Reputations Really Matter?

Scholars of political behavior have demonstrated in several works that negative and positive bits of information are not weighed the same when individuals go into the voting booth. One shortcoming of this research is the lack of a satisfying explanation for this phenomenon. This study draws on the concept of “responsiveness” in an attempt to fill that gap. Using NES data for the five most recent off‐year elections, findings suggest that voters use the negative heuristic primarily in cases where the actions of their representatives have failed to meet their expectations in terms of different types of responsiveness. This explanation receives additional support from the observation that negativity does not seem to play a role with regard to challenger evaluations where there are no unfulfilled expectations.