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Yawn, Mike; Ellsworth, Kevin H.; Beatty, Bob; Kahn, Kim Fridkin

doi:10.1023/a:1024832830083

Cited by 52 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Moreover, voters tend to have little information about primary candidates, so new information gained during the debate is more likely to influence voters’ preferences. Several studies have indeed demonstrated that US primary debates produce significant changes in electoral preferences in those who are exposed to them (Benoit et al, 2002; Lanoue and Schroff, 1989; Yawn et al, 1998).…”

Section: Existing Literature On Debate Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Presidential Debates and Electoral Preferences in Weakly Institutionalised Democracies: Evidence From 32 Latin American Elections

Cantú,

Carreras

2023

Journal of Politics in Latin America

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Previous research has shown that presidential debates have “minimal effects” on aggregate electoral preferences because they mainly reinforce people's pre-existing political preferences. However, most of what we know about the behavioural effects of debates comes from research conducted in the United States and other institutionalised democracies. We re-evaluate the effects of debates on electoral preferences by focusing on Latin American elections. Given higher levels of electoral volatility, weaker partisan brands, lower partisanship, and more personalised voter linkages, we expect that debates play a significant role in shaping vote choice in Latin America. We test these expectations by conducting an analysis of presidential debates on aggregated vote preferences in thirty-two elections across fourteen Latin American countries from 2002 to 2019. Our results show that presidential debates shape electoral preferences in countries with weakly institutionalised party systems.

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Section: Existing Literature On Debate Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Presidential Debates and Electoral Preferences in Weakly Institutionalised Democracies: Evidence From 32 Latin American Elections

Cantú,

Carreras

2023

Journal of Politics in Latin America

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“…Most past research on primary debates has focused on normative outcomes such as information acquisition (Benoit et al, 2002), political information efficacy (McKinney & Warner, 2013), and cynicism (McKinney & Warner, 2013). In addition, primary debates generally have significant persuasive effects that influence candidate preference (Benoit et al, 2002; Lanoue & Schroff, 1989; Yawn et al, 1998) and evaluation (McKinney et al, 2001; McKinney & Warner, 2013).…”

Section: The Effects Of Viewing a Presidential Primary Debatementioning

confidence: 99%

Do Presidential Primary Debates Increase Political Polarization?

Warner

Park

Kim

et al. 2021

American Behavioral Scientist

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This study presents the results of a quasi-experiment to assess the effects of viewing a strategically manipulated portion of a 2020 Democratic Primary debate. Our aim was to assess the polarizing potential of primary debates on both ingroup (Democratic) and outgroup (Republican) viewers. Viewing the primary debate resulted in less perceived closeness with members of the opposing political party, greater feelings of social distance, and more attribution of malevolent intentions. These effects were consistent regardless of whether the viewer was a member of the political ingroup (Democrats) or outgroup (Republicans). Conversely, there was no effect of debate viewing on evaluations of outparty candidates (with respect to negative trait attributions or lower feeling thermometer evaluations)., nor did support for political compromise change as a result of viewing the debate. Both Democrats and independents reported improved evaluations of participating candidates, though Republican evaluations did not change.

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