It is evident that, when dialect similarity exists between speakers and listeners, listeners tend to be more accepting of the speakers than when there is a difference in dialect. In order to ascertain the effects on listeners of the dialects of Ford and Carter in the 1976 presidential debates, a questionnaire was administered to 252 students who attended the University of Alabama, the University of Texas, and the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Immediatly prior to the first debate, students were asked to indicate candidate preference; after the first and third debates, they were asked to indicate candidate preference, judge which candidate had won the debates, and tell whether each candidate's dialect was similar to or unlike their own. Analysis of the results indicated that respondents who perceived their own dialects to be similar to Ford's and unlike Carter's favored Ford in greater proportion than the overall Ford-Carter ratio, but that Carter failed to gain similarity advantages in a proportion approaching Ford's. (GW)