Reconsidering partisanship as a constraint on the persuasive effects of debates

ABSTRACT

This study tests persuasive effects of 30 debate performances drawn from samples (n = 5780) of 22 states over four election cycles (2004–2016). We test partisanship of the candidate, type of debate (presidential or vice-presidential), gender of the candidate, whether it was the first debate of the cycle, and whether it was a town-hall debate as possible moderators. Results reveal that viewers are likely to perceive their inparty candidate more favorably after viewing a debate, particularly for vice-presidential candidates, Democratic candidates, and female candidates. Debate viewing did not consistently influence evaluations of the outparty candidate. We conclude that debates can persuade and argue for a reconceptualization of partisan-motivated reasoning as a constraint on political persuasion.

KEYWORDS:

• Partisan-motivated reasoning
• presidential debates
• political persuasion
• affective polarization
• campaign communication

Acknowledgement

We would also like to thank Ashley Muddiman for providing both inspiration and advice for our data analysis as well as Lance Holbert for his helpful comments on an earlier version of this manuscript. Finally, we would like to thank the anonymous reviewers and Paul Schrodt for their thoughtful and constructive feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Benjamin R. Warner (Ph.D., University of Kansas) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication, University of Missouri.

Mitchell S. McKinney (Ph.D., University of Kansas) is a Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Missouri.

Josh C. Bramlett (Ph.D., University of Missouri) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at Eastern New Mexico University.

Freddie J. Jennings (Ph.D., University of Missouri) is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Arkansas.

Michelle Elisabeth Funk (Ph.D., University of Missouri) is a research associate with the Media and Diversity Center at the University of Missouri.

ORCID

Benjamin R. Warner http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2405-4842

Freddie J. Jennings http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1536-9831

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

The authors would like to thank the Reynolds Journalism Institute for financially supporting various iterations of this research.