Liking and Listening: Impression Formation and Information Processing in Presidential Debates

Participants were asked to watch, listen to, or read a transcript of the opening statements from the first presidential debate of 1960 between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. Afterwards, participants were asked to recall three moments in the debate, both list and identify quotes from each candidate, and indicate impressions of each candidate’s personality. My research aimed to see if there is any connection between debate format, how participants process information, and how participants form impressions of a leader’s personality. I hypothesized that participants who listened to the debate would best process information. While there were few situations where format was statistically significant in participants’ information processing, some data suggest that my hypothesis is correct. Notable contributions of my research include findings on the relationship between debate format and personality impression formation. Debate format proved to be statistically significant in how participants formed opinions about Kennedy and Nixon’s personalities