Effects of Watching Primary Debates in the 2000 U.S. Presidential Campaign

Abstract

This essay reports the results of 2 studies measuring the effects of watching U.S. presidential primary debates. Using a pretest-posttest design, participants watched either a Republican (October 22, 1999) or a Democratic (October 27, 1999) New Hampshire primary debate. Those who watched each debate learned more about the candidates' policies, formed evaluations of candidates who were less well-known, and changed their evaluations of better known candidates. Viewers changed voting intention and expressed more confidence in their vote choice after watching a debate. Thus, we can conclude that primary debates are capable of influencing both policy and character impressions of the candidates, as well as changing voting intentions and increasing vote confidence.A great deal has been written about general presidential debates (for example,

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