What matters for keeping or losing support in televised debates

König, Pascal D.; Waldvogel, Thomas

doi:10.1177/02673231211046706

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 42 publications

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“…In contrast to a classic experiment, the quasi-experiment design used in this study did not include a control group, for reasons of practicality and feasibility. Quasi-experimental designs are useful for studying real-world phenomena and are common in experimental studies on debate effects (e.g., Maier and Faas 2003;König and Waldvogel 2022). In addition, in this specific experimental design, the absence of a control group and randomized participant assignment does not strike us as able to undermine the validity of our findings.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 92%

Does Exposure to Televised Debates Change the Weight of Different Criteria for Candidate Assessment? A Quasi-Experiment in the Context of the 2014 Spitzenkandidaten Debate

Santana-Pereira,

Nina

2023

Social Sciences

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In this article, we show how exposure to debates primes specific candidate assessments as key factors of candidate appraisal. To fulfil this goal, we rely on quasi-experimental data collected in 24 European Union Member States and focus on a debate starred by largely unknown candidates (the 2014 European Spiztenkandidaten) engaged in a remarkably invisible campaign. Our results show that candidate perceptions become much more important factors of general candidate appraisal after the debate in the case of three out of the five lead candidates, namely those whose image benefitted from their participation in the debate. In several cases, personal likeability became more important in the general assessment of the Spitzenkandidaten, but there was also an increased relevance of the perceptions of leadership strength (Keller) and quality of the ideas to stimulate the European economy (Schulz and Tspiras). Moreover, in the cases of Schulz, Keller, and Tsipras, post-exposure candidate perceptions impacted more their general appraisal by participants without previous knowledge of them than by those who claimed to know them before the debate. Interestingly, leadership strength appraisal was more relevant for the former than for the latter participants. In short, by unveiling these patterns, this article not only provides evidence of the priming effects of debate exposure but also illustrates how such effects may vary according to citizens’ previous knowledge and the candidates’ general performance in the debate.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 92%

Does Exposure to Televised Debates Change the Weight of Different Criteria for Candidate Assessment? A Quasi-Experiment in the Context of the 2014 Spitzenkandidaten Debate

Santana-Pereira,

Nina

2023

Social Sciences

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How to convince in a televised debate: the application of machine learning to analyze why viewers changed their winner perception during the 2021 German chancellor discussion

Ettensperger,

Waldvogel,

Wagschal

et al. 2023

Humanit Soc Sci Commun

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What causes viewers to change their winner perception during a televised debate? The article addresses this question, drawing on a large-N field study of the 2021 chancellor debate in Germany, which contains survey and real-time response data for 4613 participants. Using machine learning techniques, we identify determinants of why participants change their opinion about who is winning the discussion during the debate. Our analysis based on random forest and decision tree models shows in detail, first, what factors drive debate winner perceptions in the course of televised debate reception. Second, we reveal what combinations of political predispositions and candidate statements are necessary to change the viewers’ debate winner perception. In doing so, third, we expand the toolbox of empirical debate research with our analysis based on machine learning algorithms. Our findings indicate that pre-debate chancellor preference and candidate images play a crucial role in determining post-debate perception change, while party identification is less important in predicting changes. We can also directly identify several speech moments in the debate that shifted viewer perception, a novel approach to evaluating political debate performance.

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What matters for keeping or losing support in televised debates

Cited by 2 publications

References 42 publications

Does Exposure to Televised Debates Change the Weight of Different Criteria for Candidate Assessment? A Quasi-Experiment in the Context of the 2014 Spitzenkandidaten Debate

Does Exposure to Televised Debates Change the Weight of Different Criteria for Candidate Assessment? A Quasi-Experiment in the Context of the 2014 Spitzenkandidaten Debate

How to convince in a televised debate: the application of machine learning to analyze why viewers changed their winner perception during the 2021 German chancellor discussion

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