Watters, an assistant professor of communication at the University of Dayton, has studied politics and the media going back to the first use of television by candidates in the 1948 election.
Negative ads do have impact.
Once a negative ad is out, the other candidate feels he or she must respond, and you have a spiral effect. It's hard to start using regular ads then, to concentrate on name ID or issue-oriented ads. The chance of backlash against candidates who sponsor negative advertising is slim, according to Watters. The benefits seem to outweigh the risks, and it's hard to go wrong. Not so, responds Scott Kozar, a junior political science and philosophy major.