HOW A PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY DEBATE CHANGED ATTITUDES OF AUDIENCE MEMBERS

This article examines the effect of primary season presidential debate s on voters' attitudes toward presidential candidates. Employing a pre test-posttest quasi-experimental design, we examine the 1996 Arizona R epublican primary debate. We find that the debate led respondents to c hange their viability and electability assessments of the candidates a nd produced significant changes in respondents' vote preferences. In a ddition, we demonstrate that changes in viability, changes: in electab ility, as well as differences between expected and actual debate perfo rmance influenced the vote preferences of audience members. We conclud e by speculating about the debate's effect on the Arizona Republican p rimary, and by noting the potentially important differences between th e impact of general election and primary debates.