Choosing a President: Does Character Matter?

2007

Given the intense focus during political campaigns on the character and personality of the candidates, it is important to understand how voters assimilate and act upon this information. Previous research (Dweck, 1999; Molden & Dweck, 2006) has shown that those who believe that personality is a fixed and stable entity make more rapid and extreme judgments about others' personality, and are more likely to rely upon this personality information when interacting with others, than are those who believe that personality can ...

2011

Research on the association of personality to political orientation has suggested that direct influences are modest. Here we used a personality system model in which direct influences on political behaviour flow from moral values, with personality mostly acting on these characteristic moral adaptations, rather than directly affecting political attitudes. Study 1 in 447 subjects supported this model, with significant effects on political orientation flowing from four of the five-factor model personality domains, but largely mediated through moral values concerning the importance of group order and individual rights. This personality system model was replicated in an independent study (n = 476) using a US sample and including a different measure of politics. Both studies support predictions that personality has significant effects on political attitudes, but that these are exerted largely via moral values. These findings help to explain inconsistencies in previous studies attempting to link personality to political orientation that have not included the intermediary level of values.

2010

We study the characteristics of self-selected candidates in corrupt political systems. Potential candidates differ along two dimensions of unobservable character: public spirit (altruism toward others) and honesty (the disutility suffered when selling out to special interests after securing office). Both aspects combine to determine an individual's quality as governor. We characterize properties of equilibrium candidate pools for arbitrary costs of running for office, including the case where those costs become vanishingly small. We explore how policy instruments such as the governor's compensation and anti-corruption enforcement affect the expected quality of governance through candidate self-selection. We also show that self-selection can have surprising implications for the effect of information disclosures concerning candidates' backgrounds.

American Politics Research, 2015

Recent studies in political psychology report a significant association between personality traits and ordinary citizens’ attitudes and behaviors in the political arena. A growing body of literature examines the influence of personality on individuals’ attachment to a political party and vote choice in electoral settings. In line with these studies, we analyze the relationship between personality traits and “correct voting”, i.e., the extent to which citizens vote in accordance with their own preferences and values. Using a large-scale national survey fielded in the context of the 2008 presidential election, we find that, after controlling for well-known predictors of correct voting, some of personality traits not only exert a direct influence on correct voting, but also moderate the effect of strength of party identification, a well-established determinant of correct voting. These findings provide new evidence for the idea that individual differences such as dispositional personali...

Despite developments in leadership theory which demonstrate that personality is not a reliable method for predicting success, judging candidates by their personality traits is an intuitive and popular means for selecting leaders. This study evaluated whether voters use representative heuristic in voting practices, assessed by the closeness of each candidate's personality to the ideal leader, based on the Big Five personality traits. Participants completed online surveys rating either the personality of the ideal leader (n = 25) or the two main presidential candidates of 2012, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney (n = 51), based on items from the NEO IP-R. I examined the mean discrepancies between ratings of the ideal leader and each presidential candidate based on participant candidate preferences. Romney supporters rated both candidates lower in agreeableness and conscientiousness than the ideal, but Obama supporters rated him as much closer to the ideal. Obama was rated by both groups as more open, but Obama supporters rated Romney less open than Obama. Voters rated their preferred candidate as closer to the ideal.

European Journal of Political Research, 2011

This article examines the link between personality traits, political attitudes and the propensity to vote in elections, using an Internet panel survey conducted in two Canadian provinces at the time of the 2008 federal election and the subsequent provincial elections. It first establishes that the two most proximate attitudes that shape one's propensity to vote are political interest and sense of civic duty. The article then look at specific personality traits (altruism, shyness, efficacy and conflict avoidance) that could affect level of political interest, civic duty and the propensity to vote in elections. In the last part of the analysis, a model is proposed and tested, according to which the impact of personality traits is indirect, being mediated by interest and duty. The article shows that the data are consistent with such an interpretation.

American Journal of Political Science, 2001

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1995

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CESifo Economic Studies

Economic research shows that candidates have a higher chance of getting (re-)elected when they have the luck that the world economy does well even though this is beyond their control and unrelated to their competence. Psychological research demonstrates that candidates increase their chances if they have the right looks, a facial characteristic that is also unrelated to a politician’s actual policies. We combine these two strands of literature by assessing the relative strength of luck and looks. Moreover, we take the moderating effect of the electoral system into account. Using a sample of 196 elections for 44 countries between 1979-1999, results show that looks matter only in majority systems whereas luck ceases to be relevant at all. Economic competence does matter in representative systems. These results hold after controlling for the interaction of luck, looks and competence with variables that proxy for the cross-country variation in the well-informedness of voters.