BOSTON, May 9 (UPI) -- Seeing questions in writing can help voters detect dodges by politicians running for office, U.S. researchers say.
Study authors Todd Rogers and Michael I. Norton, both of Harvard University, says people typically listen to a speaker with the goal of forming an opinion of the person, but all too often they fall for accepting the person's response to a question even if the question goes unanswered.
However, the researchers say limited attention capacity is another reason people fall for dodges. A previous study, they note, showed people counting basketball passes failed to notice a man in a gorilla suit walking through the game.
The study, published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, says dodge detection greatly increased if listeners were directed to pay close attention to the relevance of speakers' answers, or if the text of the correct question was visible to the listeners as the speaker responded.
The ability to recognize a dodge more than doubled, from 39 percent without the text to 88 percent with the text, the study says.
"Given concerns that voters are uninformed or misinformed and the many calls for increased education of voters these results suggest that very simple interventions can dramatically help voters focus on the substance of politicians' answers rather than their personal style," the study authors say in a statement.
