Turn-Taking & Interruptions in Presidential Debate

Examples of interruptions (2)
MCCAIN: I want to keep taxes low. The worst thing we could do in this economic climate is to raise people’s taxes.
OBAMA: I, I, I ... don’t know where John is getting his figures. (overlap)

Conclusions (1)
In presidential debates institutional turn-taking rules are applied (one leader organizes the debate; question/answer);
Frequency of different interruption types is not the primary aspect for successful outcome of the presidential debate (also election);

Conclusions (2)
Interruptions do not give clear advantage or disadvantage in presidential debate;
Intonation, body language etc. should be taken into account (e.g. self-confidence and eye contact vs. anxiety and lack of eye contact).

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