On September 10, 2024, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and former U.S. President Donald Trump met one another and engaged in a debate. It was just 56 days before the U.S. presidential election, so it was presumed that this could likely be the first and only debate between the two.

Viewers around the country were exposed to ongoing media coverage before, during, and after the debate. Coverage included sound bites from politically conservative and politically liberal voters on the streets of various states. Politically unaffiliated voters were also asked to share their perspectives. Media coverage was similar to that of America’s most popular sporting event, the Super Bowl.

Yet unlike in professional sports, Harris and Trump have been presented to the public via news media that vary in political ideology. Before the debate, they were portrayed as embarking upon a historic high-stakes head-to-head—one that, according to different outlets, was a face-off between a “dangerously radical liberal” (Wallace, 2024) and a “criminally indicted narcissist” (Trepany, 2024), among other wildly varying characterizations.

It is known that humans’ brains don’t perceive incoming information solely based on our biology. Culture, personality, and overall life experiences influence how information that is received by the senses is processed to be emotionally and cognitively meaningful in the brain.

Despite receiving the same sensory input from afferent neurons (meaning those that send input inward, from the senses to the brain), the information that the brain interprets and takes away from political debates can vary across individuals who see and hear the same sensory input. Potential voters’ conclusions about a widely covered national event such as a U.S. presidential debate may be impacted by viewers' personality, despite media messaging.

The most widely used self-report tool assessing tolerance for uncertainty is the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale (IUS). It measures an individual's discomfort with uncertainty across various domains. This personality trait may partly explain why two potential voters can view the same media content yet emerge........

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