The ups and downs of Presidential candidates

The ups and downs of Presidential candidates

Roy Morgan

September 14, 2012

Hundreds of Americans have recorded their second-by-second reactions to highlights of the two Presidential candidates’ speeches with Roy Morgan’s Reactor.

The results are now available with selectable graphs synchronised with the videos (details below).

The Reactor results show that Americans are difficult to sway from their preferred party, regardless, it seems, of the merits of the candidate’s arguments or promises. The screen shot below shows how people who usually vote Republican generally respond positively to everything Mitt Romney has to say – while those who usually vote Democrat invariably react positively to President Obama. The dramatic swing from positive to negative is unmistakeable as the video segments alternate from one candidate to the other.

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One of Romney’s highest scores with 35 to 49 year olds (yellow line) was reached when he talked about repealing ‘Obamacare’ (although this didn’t go down too well with the 18 to 34 year olds (red line).

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But, surprisingly, Romney frequently scored higher with 18 to 34 year-olds (red Line) than Obama (the segment in the middle that scored lower with younger voters).

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The graph below shows segments, alternating between Romney & Obama’s speeches, demonstrating the President’s compelling appeal to women (red line).

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View a five minute video of the reactions of different age groups of Americans.

This three minute video show’s reactions graphed by people’s usual Party preference.

President Obama’s superior appeal to women is obvious in this four minute video which graphs reactions by gender.

The full Reactor results of the candidates’ acceptance speeches are now available on request.

Roy Morgan Research is currently talking with interested media networks in the USA to use the Mobile Reactor to display the reactions of millions of Americans in real-time to forthcoming speeches and debates leading up to the Presidential Election. The reactions can be displayed live on TV broadcasts as people react on their smartphones.

For further details or to request access to the full results of the Reactor results of the Presidential Nomination Acceptance Speeches, email: Reactor@roymorgan.com

ENDS