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.