The conventional wisdom over the past five years has generally concluded that Sarah Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, hurt Sen. John McCain’s chances to beat then-Sen. Barack Obama for the presidency with her outsized and controversial personality.

But now a comprehensive new study of the so-called “Palin Effect” finds that in the final analysis, the former Alaska governor helped McCain by attracting voters, even independents, to the ticket. What’s more, while she received wider press attention than most previous veep candidates, her actual impact for a No. 2 was about average.