The relative weight of character traits in political candidate evaluations: Warmth is more important than competence,leadership and integrity |
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| Institution: | 1. Raj Soin College of Business, 250 Rike Hall, Wright State University, Dayton, OH 45435-0001, United States;2. C.T. Bauer College of Business, 334 Melcher Hall, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204-6030, United States;3. Ivey Business School, Western University, 1151 Richmond Street N, London, Ontario N6A 3K7, Canada;1. Louvain School of Management (CCMS), Université Catholique de Louvain, Place des doyens 1, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium;2. Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada;3. Department of Psychology, Université Catholique de Louvain, Place Cardinal Mercier 10, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium;2. University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Sopot, Poland |
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| Abstract: | Decades of research has found that voters’ electoral decisions to a significant degree are affected by character evaluations of candidates. Yet it remains unresolved which specific candidate traits voters find most important. In political science it is often argued that competence-related traits are most influential, whereas work in social psychology suggests that warmth-related traits are more influential. Here we test which character trait is the more influential in global candidate evaluations and vote choice using observational data from the ANES 1984–2008 and an original experiment conducted on a representative sample of English partisan respondents. Across the two studies we find that warmth is more influential than competence, leadership and integrity. Importantly, results hold across a wide range of alternative specifications and robustness analyses. We conclude by discussing theoretical and practical implications of the results. |
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| Keywords: | Political candidates Character traits Competence Warmth Candidate preferences US presidents Vote choice |
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