If you watch the Arizona Republican
Primary debate tonight, you may see a candidate dodge a question or two. Whether or not you notice the dodge depends
on how subtly the politician steers away from the difficult subject
matter, according to a series of experiments by Michael Norton and
Todd Rogers of Harvard University. If the debater responds to a
question with an answer similar to the topic, even if not related to the topic, you may not
spot the dodge, as reported in the March Harvard Magazine. Our
difficulty in noticing such evasions has to do with the
challenge of processing a lot of information at once, the researcher say. Media producing the debates can help, they say, for example by displaying
the text of questions right on the screen.
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If you watch the Arizona Republican
Primary debate tonight, you may see a candidate dodge a question or two. Whether or not you notice the dodge depends
on how subtly the politician steers away from the difficult subject
matter, according to a series of experiments by Michael Norton and
Todd Rogers of Harvard University. If the debater responds to a
question with an answer similar to the topic, even if not related to the topic, you may not
spot the dodge, as