The scarcity principle in perceived learning from televised campaign debates

This study tests the scarcity principle of campaign debate learning, which theorizes a benefit to novel information such that voters who have less information or are viewing a less familiar candidate will gain more information from a debate compared to those who have been following the campaign more closely or who are viewing a more well-known candidate. We find that, in general, viewers of a debate see increases in perceptions of their general knowledge about the candidates and their perceived knowledge about the issue stances of the candidates. These gains are largest for those less interested in politics and when viewing a less familiar candidate. Thus, we find strong support for the scarcity principle – novel information is more valuable when viewing presidential debates. However, there were not greater gains for those lower in objective political knowledge, nor were presidential debates more informative than vice presidential debates.