Political leaders' communicative style and audience evaluation in an Italian general election debate

The present study analyzes the 2006 Italian General Election debate between Berlusconi and Prodi. While watching the debate live on TV, 65 subjects using a self-report questionnaire evaluated, for each answer, each politician's performance (as persuasive, pleasant, expert, calm) and answer (as understandable, credible, interesting); subjects were also queried about their political orientation, vote intention and possible change at the end of debate. Then blind observers examined and coded each politician's rhetoric and gestures. Results show that rhetoric and gestures of Berlusconi were different from Prodi's. Correlation analyses between objective measures (coding) and subjective measures (self-report) show that verbal and gestural styles used in each answer by the two politicians had different persuasive effects on different politically oriented audiences. The different evaluations of these communicative parameters and their persuasive effect are discussed. © Springer-Verlag 2013