Opposition to a politician creates stronger opinions

Any opinion can be formed in two ways. You can support someone because you like them or because you don't like their opponent. A new study published in the latest issue of Political Psychology examines this concept to find that people are less likely to change their preference when they cast their vote against the candidate they do not like rather than for the one they do. Previous research has shown that negative information is often more powerful than positive information in creating attitudes, i.e. which political candidate to vote for. And the study's authors George Y. Bizer and Richard E. Petty find that leading people to think in terms of whom they oppose was enough to make them more resistant to a persuasive message