The students were split into two groups, one group listened to the debate on radio 4 and the other group watched it live on BBC One. The experiement of the two groups was conducted by John and Clare, BBC Radio Kents breakfast presenters. John said "we wanted to know how much the visual performance by the candidates rather than what they were actually saying, impacts on the voters".The idea for the experiment came from the first TV debate in 1960 between Richard Nixon and John F Kennedy those that watched voted Kennedy and those who listened voted Nixon.
The results of this experiment were very interesting. The listening group backing Clegg and the watching groups winner was Cameron.
Interestingly Jamie Harris from the watching group felt that Nick Clegg seemed 'over confident'. The listening group thought that David cameron was the loser of the debate.
The listening group liked the fact that Nick Clegg didn't get involved in the 'petty arguments' between Cameron and Brown and this aided in there choice of who the clear winner of the debate was.
Both groups didn't have much to say about Browns performance.
You can find out what else the students said about the debate by clicking here!
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