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Science Quickly

Candidates Tend to Not Dodge Questions

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.2639 Ratings

🗓️ 24 May 2016

⏱️ 2 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In an analysis of 14 presidential debate transcripts, two thirds of accusations of question-dodging had no merit. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Understanding the human body is a team effort. That's where the Yachtel group comes in.

0:05.8

Researchers at Yachtolt have been delving into the secrets of probiotics for 90 years.

0:11.0

Yacold also partners with nature portfolio to advance gut microbiome science through the global grants for gut health, an investigator-led research program.

0:19.6

To learn more about Yachtolt, visit yawcult.co.

0:22.7

.jp. That's Y-A-K-U-L-T.C-O.J-P. When it comes to a guide for your gut, count on Yacolt.

0:33.6

This is Scientific American's 60-second science. I'm Christopher in Taliatta.

0:39.0

This campaign season, there's been plenty of name-calling and lots of accusations.

0:44.1

David Clemanson, a PhD candidate at the Ohio State University, has been keeping tabs.

0:49.3

I mean, there was one debate where Rubio and Cruz were just all over Trump accusing him of dodging questions.

0:56.3

But that doesn't answer the question.

0:58.0

He didn't interrupt you.

0:59.5

You have yet to answer a single serious question about any of this.

1:03.7

Will you give us a detailed answer about foreign policy anytime you're asked on it?

1:08.2

Cleminton wanted to see if claims of question dodging actually held up,

1:11.8

historically, not necessarily in the unique case of Trump. So Clemanson analyzed the transcripts of

1:17.4

14 presidential debates from 1996 to 2012. Overall, he found 51 accusations of question dodging,

1:25.6

26 by Dems, 25 by Republicans. A third of the time, the

1:30.0

accused candidate did, in fact, go off topic. But in every single case, the accused candidates

1:35.4

still mentioned the question topic, meaning that most of the time, he says, candidates are

1:40.9

unfairly accused of question dodging. The results are in the Journal of Language and Social Psychology.

1:47.7

Clemitson's advice for the next debate?

1:49.4

Just because a politician of your partisan affiliation or your party ID

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