About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

14 Legal Comm. & Rhetoric: JAWLD 1 (2017)

handle is hein.journals/jalwd14 and id is 1 raw text is: ARTICLE Fear and Loathing in Persuasive Writing An Empirical Study of the Effects of the Negativity Bias Kenneth D. Chestek* I. Introduction People naturally prefer positive people to negative ones. They naturally respond better to those who are kind than those who are not. Logically, then, the ideal strategy for a candidate would be to make his or her campaign as positive and as cordial as possible.' One might wish that the sentiment expressed above by a hopeful graduate student were true. It seems to make intuitive sense. However, those words were penned a full year before the unexpected outcome of the * Associate Professor of Law and Assistant Director of the Center for the Study of Written Advocacy, University of Wyoming College of Law. The author wishes to thank Professors Linda Edwards, Michael Smith, Steve Johansen, and Lance Long for reviewing early drafts of this work. I also wish to thank psychology professors Narina Nunez (University of Wyoming) and Monica Miller (University of Nevada Reno) for talking me through the process of designing a scientifically reliable study. I took most of their advice; any errors in the design of the study are probably the result of the few situations in which I chose a different strategy. Thanks also to Magistrate Judge Andrew Wistrich of the United States District Court for the Central District of California for his valuable insight and recommendations about the design of the study. I also wish to thank the participants at the Fourth Annual West Coast Rhetoric Workshop sponsored by the William S. Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, for their excellent comments; in particular, Brian Wall, Maureen Johnson, and Lydia Nussbaum provided very useful feedback during the small group session devoted to critiquing this paper. Finally, I owe a great deal to Jasmine Fathalla, 2016 candidate for the J.D. degree from the University of Wyoming. Jasmine was my research assistant for two years on this project, assisting with everything from legal research into the issues presented in the hypo- thetical case to helping solicit and compile responses to the test. Her assistance with this project was invaluable. 1 Peter A. Gregory, Comparing the Effectiveness of Positive and Negative Political Campaigns, 7(11) INQUIRIES J. (2015), http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/a?id= 1311. At the time of publication, the author was seeking a master's degree in public administration at Brigham Young University.

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most