Evaluation of Candidates' Characteristics during the Presidential Debates

Abstract

Research (e.g., Kinder & Sears, 1985) has shown that viewers' perceptions of such characteristics as competence, honesty, and integrity in a political candidate will often affect their preferences for that candidate. To examine further the implications of such findings, a group of 48 undergraduates at a predominantly black university were asked to view the second president~al debate between Bush and Dukakis. The sample consisted of 30 young women and 18 young men whose mean age was 19 yr. All participants completed a set of questionnaires (see McIntosh, 1989) which included a measure of the viewers' evaluation of the two candidates on several characteristics as they debated the issues. This measure contained 14 items, seven assessing Bush's characteristics and seven assessing Dukakis' characteristics. Analysis showed that 33% of the viewers rated Dukakis as being very truthful in his answers to the panelists' questions while only 6% gave Bush such a rating. Almost 12% thought Bush showed good judgment in his responses, but this was far below the 23% who indicated that Dukakis showed good judgment in his responses. Twenty-seven percent rated Dukakis as likeable but only 4% rated Bush as such. In terms of expertise, 31% considered Dukakis to be an expert in discussing the issues, while only 6% considered Bush to be an expert. Twenty-seven percent of these viewers, however, saw Bush as being very confident in discussing those same issues. This was still below Dukakis' rating of 35%. Twentythree percent rated Dukakis as being very capable in dealing with policy issues, but only 6% rated Bush in the same light. Finally, only 10% of the viewers rated Bush's over-all debate performance as very successful while Dukahs's rartng was as high as 31%. Interestingly enough, Dukakis was perceived more favorably than Bush on all seven characteristics. It was not surprising that 35% of the viewers thought he won the debate while only 6% indicated that Bush won. It must be noted, however, that prior Democratic preference among these viewers may well have accounted for the extremely positive characteristics assigned Dukakis.