While reading Diana C. Mutz and Byron Reeves’ article, “The New Videomalaise: Effects of Televised Incivility on Political Trust,” an article about the adverse relationship between the incivility of politicians towards one another on television and television consumers’ trust in the political system, I could not help but think of our previous class discussions about the effect of negative campaign advertisements on voters. As discussed in class, contemporary political scientists assert that negative campaigns, though they may be good sources of information about the candidates, have the ability to depress voter turnout, due to their negativity. It is interesting to connect Mutz and Reeves’ assertion that politicians on television are held to the same human decency standards as face-to-face interactions between people, to this theory of campaign ads. They suggest that as a result of the impolite treatment of one another politicians are viewed by television-viewers unfavorably and as a result, the institutions they represent (Congress, the Government in general, etc) are viewed unfavorably as well. Maybe it is for this reason that people become disillusioned by negative campaigning and are disinterested in voting. Based on this article I would like to assert that the feeling behind the disinterest in voting as a result of negative advertisements used in political campaigns is a result of television viewers’ distress over the incivility displayed by the candidates. This distress and disappointment over the lack of politeness expressed during elections, then manifests itself in the desire to want nothing to do with the election process.
When I think of negative campaigning of late, it is hard for me to forget the Midterm election battle that occurred in my home state of Pennsylvania between the incumbent Senator Rick Santorum and the newly elected future Senator Robert Casey. As the elections got closer and the polls tightened with Casey taking a bit of a lead, Santorum deployed a series of negative ads.

Along with ads bashing Casey, Senator Santorum also aired ads that lied about himself, as we discussed in class.

Though no significant research has been done to test the effect of Santorum's negative ad campaign, the people of Pennsylvania spoke, and as Americans rarely do they voted against the incumbent.
Maybe the people of Pennsylvania thought Senator Santorum was being impolite?