Looking beyond the punchline: the effect of political entertainment on evaluations of political candidates

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study examined the effects of three different television genres on perceptions of a political candidate during an election period. Students at a large Southeastern university (n = 172) were assigned to one of three conditions: late-night comedy, traditional news, or sketch comedy to assess differential impacts on perceived trust, evaluations, and electability of Elizabeth Warren during the 2020 Democratic presidential primary period. Results showed that participants in the late-night condition rated Warren as more trustworthy than those in the traditional news condition. However, there were no differences across the conditions in terms of perceptions of electability or candidate trait evaluations. Finally, this study found that political knowledge moderated the relationship between condition and trust. More specifically, results showed that as knowledge increased, participants in the sketch comedy condition reported higher levels of trust in Warren whereas the opposite occurred for those in the traditional news condition. Perceptions of trust remained fairly high and stable in the late-night condition, regardless of political knowledge. Results demonstrate the importance of understanding how politicians (or their likeness) are perceived in different television settings and how certain media appearances could affect viewer perceptions of those politicians.