University of Missouri research shows voters benefit from watching presidential debates

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A University of Missouri professor said research shows people's confidence and knowledge about presidential campaigns go up after watching presidential debates.

Ben Warner, the director of MU's Political Communication Institute, is part of a team that conducts research on what college students think of presidential debates all across the country.

"Research on whether debates can influence the outcome of an election is skeptical, but the research on whether viewers of a debate benefit from doing so is unequivocal," Warner said. "People learn a lot from debates and they get a lot of confidence in their information about the candidates."

Tuesday marked the first time former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris met on the debate stage.

MU communications and political science major Tanner Smith said he was able to learn a lot from last night's discussions between the two candidates.

"It's really good to be able to see them together on the stage and being able to interact with each other and truly answer the questions that people have," Smith said.

While data before the debate showed people had enough information about Trump, Warner said 14% of participants said they did not have enough information about Harris. After the debate, that number dropped to 6%.

"People did feel like they learned about her in the debate and people's perceptions of her went up in terms of their perceptions of her competence, her leadership, and that she understands the problems faced by 'people like me,' that's a question we like to ask," Warner said. "She went up on all those metrics."

He said 66% of participants said they believe Harris "won" the debate.

Compared to the June debate between Trump and President Joe Biden, Warner said Tuesday's debate saw an uptick in interest from young voters.

While summer studies can be tougher for research due to fewer students in classes, he said it seemed people were more excited about this week's debate.

"It seems like particularly, young people weren't as excited about a rematch between two candidates either in or approaching their eighties," Warner said. "So, there does seem to be more enthusiasm now that there's a fresh face in the mix."

Smith said no matter someone's political views, it's important for voters to make their voices heard in elections.

"Young voters are a very important part of the voting population and have the ability to swing elections," Smith said. "So, if there are certain issues that young people are very focused on and see as very, very important, being able to figure out which politicians are supporting the things that you care about the most and then being able to actually go out, register to vote and vote is super important for the political process."

Warner said they gathered data from 365 students across nine universities on Tuesday, including around 180 University of Missouri students.

He said MU has been leading this national research on presidential debates since 2000.