These slides were part of Bournemouth University's Festival of learning and explain some of the key ways in which the ordinary, fairly disinterested, citizen engages with political campaign communication and so offers some lessons on how elections might be won.

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5. Dr Darren G. Lilleker
Associate Professor: Political Communication
Faculty of Media and Communication

9. THE BRAIN IS
ALWAYS WORKING,
BUT USUALLY JUST
PROCESSING
SUBCONSCIOUSLY
WE ONLY SEE
NEURONS FIRE
WHEN THE BRAIN IS
ACTIVELY
PROCESSING
ACTIVE PROCESSING
REQUIRES EFFORT
AND ENERGY

13. STUFF WE
AGREE
WITH
STUFF
WE’RE
UNDECIDED
ON
STUFF WE
DISAGREE
WITH
Humans like consistency, so tend to ignore communication that
challenges their pre-existing attitudes and beliefs.

14. The amount of information, and its
consistency are the foundation of attitudes
 If we agree/like all items in our schema
relating to X we like X (an vice versa)
Depending on volume and consistency our
attitudes range from strong to weak
Attitudes help automatic decision-making

15. We have insufficient consistent
information
We have to make a decision
The decision is important
We feel likely personal impact
A message has personal
resonance
A message counters what we
know, but cannot be ignored
THIS
OCCURS
WHEN

16. Discomfort from holding two contrasting
views
• Do we ignore one piece of information?
• Do we try to reduce the importance of one view?
• Do we find more information?
• Do we withdraw completely?

17. NEGATIVE
STIMULI
AFFECTIV
E
APPRAISA
L
LEARN
MORE
UNDERSTAN
D DEBATES
DELIBERATE
RELY ON
TRUSTED
SOURCE
S
CONFIRM
BIAS AFFIRMATION

18. Humans seek easy solutions to problems,
heavily relying on automacy
Schema items aid us make semi-automatic
decisions
New information is compared to existing
schema
If we don’t know we start to weigh options
Information seeking/accidental exposure
can lead to dissonance

19. The Conservatives won a majority of seats
by:
• Carefully targeted messages (geo-targeting)
• They ‘owned’ a “Long-term Economic Plan’
• Miliband was seen as potentially weak

20. Schema
• Conservatives strong on economy; Labour not to
be trusted
• Miliband’s serious image problems
Simple reinforcement strategy focusing on
one positive and one negative message
(Repeat-Remind)
Squeezed Liberal Democrat voters using a
fear campaign (dissonance)

21. Schema
• Long-term antipathy to the idea of the EU
• Makes negative messages about the EU easier to
believe

22.  Elite driven, fear-oriented
• Contrasted with a public antipathy for elites
• Contrasted in a belief in ‘Great Britain’
 The positive message did not come
through
• LibDem, Greens mostly marginalised
 Half-hearted campaigning did not
resonate in Labour heartlands

25.  Stronger IN
• ‘Project Fear’ predominated
• Elites were ‘unloved’
• Antipathy overwhelmed positive messages
 Leave
• Mocked elite as ‘Project Fear’
• Reinforced simple negative positions
• Offered a positive future

27. Messages need to reinforce existing
schema
Keep it simple
Offer some hope
Simple choices are easiest

28. dlilleker@bournemouth.ac.uk