The Defiance Premium: Consumer Responses to Party-Defiance Ads

In the United States, spending on political campaigns has surged dramatically. This paper introduces and examines “party-defiance ads,” a novel type of political advertisement in which candidates explicitly criticize their own party and take a position typically associated with the opposing party. Given the importance of party loyalty, defiance ads appear counterintuitive and risky. Why would candidates air ads in which they criticize their party? Across eight main studies and nine supplemental studies (N = 12,626)—including an analysis linking real-world ad content to voting outcomes in recent elections—we investigate how consumers react to the use of defiance ads. Past research on political polarization predicts that defiance ads will have negative consequences for candidates. In contrast, we argue and present evidence that defiance ads can result in positive consequences for candidates (a “defiance premium”). We examine the defiance premium in the context of both general elections and primaries and specify when and why it emerges. Our findings examine a previously undocumented advertising strategy, introduce electability as an important construct for research at the intersection of political marketing and consumer psychology, and provide practical insights for managers interested in deploying defiance ads without triggering backlash for doing so.