Research Seminar on Diversity and Development Krzysztof Krakowski "Violence Against Politicians, Negative Campaigning, and Public Opinion: Evidence from Poland "

HSE International Center for the Study of Institutions and Development (ICSID) and NES Center for the Study of Diversity and Social Interactions are pleased to announce their next joint Research Seminar on Diversity and Development. The event is held jointly with the seminar “Political Economy”.

Krzysztof Krakowski (Collegio Carlo Alberto& University of Turin) will present his paper “Violence Against Politicians, Negative Campaigning, and Public Opinion: Evidence from Poland”. Co-authors: Juan S. Morales (Collegio Carlo Alberto & University of Turin), Dani Sandu (European University Institute)

The seminar will be held at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, January 26, 2021. 

Working language of the seminar is English.
Abstract: It is commonly viewed that violence against politicians increases support for the victim’s party. We revisit this conjecture drawing on evidence from an assassination of an opposition politician in Poland. First, we analyze engagement with Twitter content posted by opposition and government politicians using a difference in-differences framework. Second, we use a public opinion survey collected in the days around the attack, and compare party preferences of respondents interviewed just before and respondents interviewed just after the attack. Our results reveal decreased support for the victim’s (opposition) party relative to support for the government. To explain this finding, we show that the opposition antagonized the public by engaging in negative campaigning against the government over their politician’s assassination. Content analysis of tweets and news media confirms that citizens punished the opposition for their negative campaigning after the violence. Tentative evidence suggests that these effects could have had long-run political consequences.

We would like to ask everyone to register for the seminar at  until 3 pm of January 26. The link to the Zoom conference will be sent to all registered participants before 5 pm. If you have any questions please contact Valeria Kotelnikova (vkotelnikova@hse.ru)