Social watching the 2020 presidential and vice-presidential debates: the effect of ideological homogeneity and partisan identity strength

Abstract

This study presents a novel test of the effects of social watching a live campaign debate. We recruited just over 500 participants to view one of the two 2020 presidential campaign debates or the vice-presidential debate in real time via Zoom watch rooms. We experimentally manipulated the social dynamics of these Zoom watches to include either ideologically homogenous real-time chat, heterogenous chat, or no chat. We found asymmetry in the extent to which these chat manipulations exacerbated biased information processing. Participants in the homogenous chat Zoom sessions were more likely to provide negative debate performance evaluations of the out-group candidate but were no more likely to provide positive evaluations of the in-group candidate. Stronger partisans exhibited more bias in performance evaluation regardless of chat condition but, contrary to our expectations, did not engage in more chat compared to weak partisans.

Keywords:

• Presidential campaign debates
• partisan motivated reasoning
• social identity theory
• campaign communication
• social watching
• social media

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Participating universities included: University of Arkansas, Cameron University, Eastern New Mexico University, Iowa State University, Johnson County Community College, University of Kansas, Louisville University, Marquette University, University of Missouri, Salisbury University, Southern Utah University, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater