A political scandal involves a violation of ethical standards by public figures, such as politicians or government institutions. The violations typically involve misuse of power or corruption and usually become public knowledge through investigations, leaks, or media coverage. These events can damage leaders and institutions by destroying public trust, leading to their resignation or removal from office, and promoting calls for reforms and greater accountability. The damage wrought by a scandal can be long-lasting and ripple through the entire political system.
The vast majority of research on the effects of political scandals comes from crosscutting fields, such as communication research, political science, and psychology. A number of studies show that news about a politician’s involvement in a scandal regularly results in negative evaluations. However, the scope of particular effects may vary considerably, depending on several central moderator variables such as citizens’ previous views/attitudes, the politician’s response to the scandal, and contextual aspects. A theoretical framework that accounts for these potentially interacting aspects is missing.
Moreover, most previous scandal effect studies have relied on experimental manipulations of political information. As a result, the potential long-term impact of political scandals on citizen’s attitudes remains unclear. More research is needed to elucidate these issues by using prolonged-exposure experiments and panel studies. Finally, it is crucial that scholars examine the effects of political scandals in an interdisciplinary fashion by taking the core competencies and methodological approaches of different disciplines into account. This could improve our general understanding of the effects of scandalous information on democracy and governance.
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