Db. Carlin et al., The influence of format and questions on candidates' strategic argument choices in the 2000 presidential debates, AM BEHAV SC, 44(12), 2001, pp. 2196-2218
Building on past content analyses of presidential debates to determine how
format affects the levels of clash and candidates 'strategies, this study a
nswers three questions about the 2000 presidential debates: (a) Do candidat
es differ in their use of clash and nonclash argument strategies? (b) Does
format affect candidates 'strategic choices? and (c) Does the structure of
questions explain strategic choices ? Results of the content analysis sugge
st that format and question content affect candidates' strategic choices: h
owever. other factors including the larger campaign strategy, polling data.
and performance in previous debates also influence strategies.