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

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.