Mr. Trump, Sen. Sanders: answer the question.

• Position: YOUR LIFE - Evading hard-hitting question during debates - Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders

Nearly everybody thinks that presidential candidates routinely dodge hard-hitting questions, giving evasive answers to simple inquiries, but a study that analyzed the full transcripts of 14 U.S. presidential debates from 1996-2012 provides some surprising insights that might temper that belief--and help explain why people think politicians are evasive. The research found that presidential candidates accused their rivals of evasion quite often--54 times in the 14 debates analyzed. However, rivals actually were guilty of some form of evasion no more than 35% of the time that they were accused.

"The candidates aren't really good at accurately identifying when their opponent is evading a question," says study author David Clementson, a doctoral student in communication at Ohio State University, Columbus. "In fact, candidates often accuse their opponents of evasion when they themselves are avoiding the question they were asked."

Accusing candidates of evasion is a timeless tactic in political debates, Clementson points out. 'You have yet to answer a single serious question," Sen. Marco Rubio (R.Fla.) scolded Donald Trump during a March 3 primary debate. Journalists, too, often see candidates as evasive. "Senator, you didn't answer the question," NBC reporter Lester Holt told...