In an age of heightened political polarization, it often feels like the entire country is in constant turmoil. Every scroll through social media or news sites seems to reveal a fiery screaming match over off-hand remarks and extreme views. Some Americans have grown frustrated with political debate, claiming that it’s not productive and only serves to exacerbate divisions.
Since its founding, the CPD has focused on developing debate formats that keep the focus on candidates and their positions. For instance, for presidential debates, the moderator (or a team of moderators) is responsible for asking questions and providing guidance to ensure that all participants have the opportunity to make their case. In addition, the CPD has developed a series of nonpartisan criteria that it uses to select participating candidates for debates.
To determine which candidate gets the first question and who will be the last to speak, a coin toss is used. Each candidate will have around two minutes to respond to the question and provide rebuttals. Time may be extended at the moderator’s discretion. Additionally, the debate format includes the use of colored lights resembling traffic signals to help viewers keep track of how much time each participant has left – green indicates 30 seconds remaining, yellow indicates 15 seconds remain, and red indicates that only 5 seconds are left.
Despite the perception that political debates are largely akin to shouting matches, UC Berkeley Haas Assistant Professor Erica Bailey, Columbia Business School’s Michael White, and Sheena Iyengar report in Scientific Reports that American people misperceive both the frequency of debate in their daily lives as well as its nature. This false reality has psychological costs and can contribute to feelings of hopelessness about the future of our nation.