Which message survives an attack?

Respondents rated a candidate after hearing their message, then again after being shown an attack on that message. The counter to the cost message centered on “you’re ignoring climate” and the climate counter centered on “you’re ignoring costs.”

Source: national survey of US adults; each voter rated the candidate 0–10 before and after a randomly assigned opponent rebuttal (or a no-attack filler). Weighted to Census benchmarks; whiskers are 95% confidence ranges. n≈330 per message.