On 29 January 2018, Professor Cees van der Eijk and Dr. Annemarie Walter from the School of Politics and International Relations at the University of Nottingham presented at REPRESENT’s first seminar in Birmingham. Their latest research examines the effects of negative campaigning on party preference and election outcome in the 2015 UK election. Their findings suggest that negative campaigns tend to lose you votes and benefit your competitors, albeit in complex and unpredictable ways. This present a challenge to ‘accepted wisdom’ among professional campaigners and party strategists; most remain adamant that ‘going negative’ is a winning move.
Details of future seminars are available here.