ONE THAT MADE A DIFFERENCE: COGNITIVE CONSISTENCY, POLITICAL KNOWLEDGE, AND THE 1980 PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE |
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| Authors: | LANOUE DAVID J |
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| Institution: | DAVID J. LANOUE is assistant professor of political science at the University of California, Riverside. A previous version of this article was presented at the 1990 meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago. The data used in this article come from the 1980 National Election Study, made available by the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research. Neither the original collectors of the data nor the consortium is responsible for the analyses and interpretations presented herein. 1 would like to thank Shaun Bowler and three anonymous referees for helpful comments and criticisms. |
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| Abstract: | Despite high expectations, students of the 1960 and 1976 presidentialdebates were unable to find much evidence that these eventssignificantly affected voters' candidate preferences. As a result,scholars have turned increasingly to cognitive consistency theoriesto explain viewers' reactions (Or nonreactions) to debates.This article argues that one key mediating variable determiningwhether or not voters are influenced by debates is their levelof political knowledge. Looking at the largely ignored 1980Carter-Reagan debate, we find that voters with generally lowlevels of knowledge are particularly affected by the debate,and significant shifts in candidate preferences do occur amongthis group. The evidence suggests that the debate was an importantfactor in Ronald Reagan's bid to unseat his Democratic opponent. |
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