Successful communication requires the sender of the message to adjust its content to the cognitive abilities of the receiver. Messages that are too complex or not interesting can be easily ignored. Failing to reach the voters with a message during a campaign is troubling for the parties competing in the election. In this study, I explore whether parties in countries in which the voters are less politically sophisticated are more inclined to emphasize their valence traits during campaigns – as these are deemed to be more cognitively accessible – at the expense of discussions of their policy propositions. The results obtained using data collected in ten European democracies show that parties in countries where the general public is less interested in politics tend to devote more attention to exhibiting their valence traits, especially honesty. The level of education of the electorate is not relevant to the relative salience of valence.

Strategic premises for campaigning based on competence and integrity in Poland

The article presents the concept of valence campaigning which is based on references to non-programmatic components of political image, such as competence and integrity. The analysis covers the premises for introducing references to these characteristics in the campaign derived from the strategic position of competing political parties. The empirical section contains the results of measurement of the frequency of these appeals in the pre-election rhetoric of parties participating in parliamentary campaigns in Poland between 2007 and 2019. The Comparative Campaign Dynamics Dataset was used for the study. The results show that the high frequency of arguments related to competence results primarily from the advantageous position of a party in the polls as well as its earlier participation in the government. Integrity is mainly emphasized by new parties and, unexpectedly, the ones involved in scandals in the past.