The Influence of Debate Viewing Context on Political Cynicism and Strategic Interpretations

In 2008, Nielsen Media Research reported that between 50 million and 70 million people watched each of the presidential and vice presidential debates. Although the debates are some of the most-watched political moments, the influence of the context of debate viewing has received little attention. This study focuses on the reactions of younger Americans to watching the debates in different contexts. In particular, the authors consider the influence of three contexts on political cynicism and reactions to the debates: playing bingo, taking notes on an issue grid, and simply viewing a debate. After viewing a debate in these contexts, participants were asked to create a hypothetical headline about the debate and to answer questions about cynicism. Although there were no significant differences between conditions in terms of writing headlines containing a strategic or cynical interpretation of the debate, the language participants used documents a propensity to view the debates through a strategic lens. Furthermore, the results suggest that including an activity can help to reduce participants’ focus on the debate winner and that debate viewing is helpful for reducing cynicism.