Closing the Knowledge Gap
How Issue Priming Before Presidential Debate Viewing Encourages Learning and Opinion Articulation
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3757767 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Freddie J Jennings (0000-0003-1536-9831, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, USA, corresponding author), Robert H Wicks (0009-0002-9305-1650, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, USA), Mitchell S Mckinney (University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA), Kate Kenski (0000-0002-6064-791X, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 66 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 292-306 |
| Publication date | 2022-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Behavioral Scientist (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0002-7642 • E-ISSN: 1552-3381 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/00027642211000398 |
| OpenAlex | W3137181795 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 19 |
One mechanism by which citizens learn about candidates and issues is through watching presidential debates. Some scholars have raised concerns that these events, however, disproportionately benefit those already high in political knowledge more so than others with lesser knowledge levels. We hypothesize that knowledge begets knowledge because it prompts a constructive cognitive process that results from elaboration and reflection. We test this hypothesis in an experiment that also considers whether issue priming could help mitigate the deficit that those lower in political sophistication have when viewing campaign events. Participants ( N = 543) watched a 9-minute segment focusing on economic issues drawn from the first 2020 presidential debate between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joseph Biden. Half of the participants were randomly assigned to an issue priming condition and viewed the debate segment after reading a narrative text on economic policy, and the other half read an unrelated text. The study presents a model that reveals the following: (a) cognitive elaboration mediates the relationship between prior political knowledge and learning from a campaign event, (b) providing citizens with background issue-related knowledge produces a similar elaborative effect as did preexisting political knowledge, and (c) participants demonstrate greater political opinion articulation following this enhanced elaboration leading to more learning. The implications for cultivating a knowledgeable democratic electorate are discussed
Narrative · Political science · Politics · Presidential system · Priming (agriculture) · Sociology · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Misinformation and Its Impacts · Psychology · Social Media and Politics · Social Psychology
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| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2 |
| Citation span | 2024 - 2026 (3) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |