Big Debate, Small Effect: Impact of Televised Political Debates in Slovak Parliamentary Elections 2020

Televised political debates have become a permanent part of electoral campaigns, the campaign finale. However, evidence that such debates can shift voters' attitudes is mixed, while the impact on voters' preferences is highly doubted. Our research contributes to this debate based on empirical data on the effects of televised debates in the 2020 parliamentary elections in Slovakia. In contrast to other research on the impact of TV debates', we followed our participants for a longer period of time after the experiment, which allowed us to measure not only declared vote preference ex ante, but also reported behaviour ex post. We employed a pre-test/post-test experimental design in a controlled environment. The analysis investigates what effect debate exposure has on opinions about candidates' leadership skills, credibility, and political competence.