Feasting Our Eyes on the Candidates: Visual Cues in Televised Debates Prime Personality Traits of Lesser Known Candidates and Promote Learning

Abstract

This article examines how different modes of exposure to debates between presidential candidates affect both the criteria by which they are assessed and levels of learning about politics in an unobtrusive, distant context. In this study, 167 Portuguese undergraduate students were randomly assigned to either watch or listen to one of two 1986 dyadic presidential debates, rate the candidates on a series of items, and answer questions about the contents of the debate. We found that the mode of exposure only affected the assessment criteria of the lesser known presidential candidate. In fact, his personality appraisals carried more weight for viewers than for listeners, while the substantive performance was more important for those who listened to the debate. Although a more confrontational debating style lowered the ratings of the lesser known candidate, this was not conditional to mode of exposure. Moreover, video exposure to the debate resulted in higher levels of learning. In summary, this study supports the assumption that the visual cues in audiovisual formats are major factors of learning and prime personality traits as criteria for the appraisal of (relatively) unknown candidates.

Communicating Economic Evidence About Immigration Changes Attitudes and Policy Preferences

“…Subsequent studies have examined the combined effects of photographs and text in more naturalistic news settings, suggesting that images shift behavioral intentions—particularly among the politically interested (Geise et al 2021)—but are not necessarily more effective than text alone at changing attitudes (Powell et al 2015). Meanwhile, in settings relying on video recordings such as televised debates, audiences evaluate candidates partly on their nonverbal displays captured on-screen (Nina and Santana-Pereira 2021), and often through gendered expectations of politicians’ behavior (Boussalis et al 2021).…”

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

“…The study of effects of exposure to televised debates, which is almost as old as televised debates themselves (Katz and Feldman 1962;Chaffee 1978;McLeod et al 1979;Swanson and Swanson 1978), has indeed unveiled impacts on voting intentions and political attitudes (e.g., Maier and Faas 2011;Maier et al 2018), interest and knowledge about politics (e.g., Pfau 2003), or issue salience (e.g., Benoit et al 2003). The impact of political debates on candidate perceptions and evaluations has also been studied (e.g., Pfau and Rang 1991;Schill and Kirk 2014;Baboš and Világi 2018;Nina and Santana-Pereira 2021). This latter effect is particularly relevant as an indirect way of impacting voting behavior, since candidates' or leaders' assessments are an important driver of vote choices in contemporary democracies (e.g., Lobo and Curtice 2014;Warner and Banwart 2016).…”

“…Nonetheless, the study of priming effects has been mostly restricted to newscasts or newspaper articles (e.g., Iyengar et al 1982;Iyengar and Kinder 1987). Indeed, apart from a few studies (Druckman 2003;Pattie and Johnston 2011;Nina and Santana-Pereira 2021), the literature has neglected the impact televised debates may have on increasing the weight of specific factors in the assessment of candidates. At the same time, with a few exceptions (e.g., Druckman 2003;Nina and Santana-Pereira 2021), the extant literature has struggled with the need to isolate and disentangle debate effects from those of other campaign events taking place at the same time, in a context of heightened political communication and with citizens holding previous information about the candidates.…”

“…This feeble salience of the Spitzenkandidaten in the public sphere during the EP electoral campaign, which can be understood as a failure of this intended innovation, is actually a point of strength of our research design, because it allows us to isolate the effects of the Eurovision debate and understand the role of holding previous information about the candidates. Such a context may also be a fertile ground for debate effects at large and priming effects in specific, as some studies have pointed that such effects are greater when candidates are less known (Moy et al 2006;Blais and Perrella 2008;Baboš and Világi 2018;Nina and Santana-Pereira 2021).…”

“…Lastly, the focus on European debates constitutes a contribution to expand the literature on debate effects beyond the American context, as debates taking place outside the US have been understudied (McKinney and Carlin 2004;Anstead 2016; for recent exceptions, see Baboš and Világi 2018;Maier et al 2018, or Nina andSantana-Pereira 2021).…”