Previous research has documented that political information in the mass media can shape attitudes and behaviors beyond voter choice and election turnout. The current study extends this body of work to examine associations between televised political campaign advertising (one of the most common forms of political communication people encounter) and worry about crime and violence in the context of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. We merge two large datasets—Kantar/CMAG data on televised campaign advertisement airings (n = 3,767,477) and Simmons National Consumer Survey (NCS) data on television viewing patterns and public attitudes (n = 26,703 respondents in the United States)—to test associations between estimated exposure to campaign ads about crime and crime worry, controlling for demographics, local crime rates, and political factors. Results from multivariate models show that estimated cumulative exposure to campaign ads about crime is associated with higher levels of crime worry. Exposure to campaign ads about crime increased crime worry among Republicans, but not Democrats.

先前的研究表明，大众媒体中的政治信息可以影响选民选择和选举投票率之外的态度和行为。当前的研究扩展了这一系列工作，以检查电视政治竞选广告（人们遇到的最常见的政治传播形式之一）与 2016 年美国总统大选背景下对犯罪和暴力的担忧之间的关联。我们合并了两个大型数据集——Kantar/CMAG 电视竞选广告播出数据 ( n  = 3,767,477) 和 Simmons National Consumer Survey (NCS) 电视观看模式和公众态度数据 ( n = 26,703 名美国受访者）——测试估计接触有关犯罪的竞选广告与犯罪担忧之间的关联，控制人口统计数据、当地犯罪率和政治因素。多变量模型的结果表明，对犯罪活动广告的估计累积暴露与更高水平的犯罪担忧有关。接触有关犯罪的竞选广告增加了共和党人的犯罪担忧，但民主党人则不然。