Using Campus Presidential Debate Watch Events to Nudge: Enlisting Reference Group Leaders and Incentives in the Quest for Increasing Student Political Participation and Efficacy

Abstract

In presidential election years such as 2016, colleges and universities across the country devote substantial time and resources to student debate watch events in hopes of engaging students in the election and of generally enhancing political engagement. Few studies examine the effectiveness or potential role of such events for college students’ political participation, however. We used student leaders and attendance incentives to encourage student turnout at campus debate watch events among members of campus Greek organizations. In a quasi-experiment with attendance at campus debate events as the intervention, we explored differences between students watching debates at sponsored events with comparison groups who exclusively watched debates elsewhere. Additional groups of interest included nonwatchers and “nudged” watchers who attended a campus event to view only one debate. Based on surveys of undergraduate Greek organization members, we found a strong culture of political participation and efficacy related to the fall 2016 elections in both intervention and comparison groups, in stark contrast to those who did not watch any debates. Most importantly, a third group of “nudged” debate watchers voted and registered at higher rates than nonwatchers. Follow-up interviews with randomly selected students from a volunteer pool provided additional data. Results indicate that universities can serve as choice architects and deliberative facilitators with the potential to increase students’ political participation. As such, colleges and universities may want to devote resources toward: (1) providing incentives for students to attend coordinated presidential debate watch events that feature registration and voting resources and (2) engaging student reference group leaders in marketing and facilitating debate watch events.

Keywords:

• Civic education
• civic engagement
• participation
• political socialization
• undergraduate education

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers and Chris Bender for valuable insights and suggestions.

Notes

Notes

1 Note that “elsewhere” may have technically been “on” campus in any campus housing. By “on-campus” we mean attendance at our sponsored debate watch event at one central location.

2 University of Mount Union IRB approval number 693.A

3 Full regression results are reported in the appendix table.

4 Ordinal ratings of past voting (from 1 to 5) in past elections were dummy coded for use in regression analysis.

5 Ordinal ratings of degree of participation in Greek events (from 1 to 5) were also dummy coded. Only three ratings are represented because no respondents rated themselves a 1.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lori M. Kumler

Lori Kumler is Associate Professor of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Mount Union in Alliance, Ohio. She teaches courses in environmental policy, research methods, sustainability, and American government. Her research interests include civic education, water and climate policy, and education policy. Kumler’s most recent efforts to engage college students—installation of Civic Corners on-campus—enables students to register to vote and participate 24-7; see www.mountunion.edu/civic-corner.

Brianna M. Whittaker

Brianna Whittaker may be contacted via email to [email protected].