Desired personality traits in politicians
- Author(s)
- Julian Aichholzer, Johanna Willmann
- Abstract
What makes voters prefer a certain type of politician? First, we argue that voters’ trait preferences follow a “desired leadership” principle. We show that citizens want the ideal-type politician to be more emotionally stable, extravert-assertive, more deliberate-conscientious and open, more honest, but also somewhat more disagreeable than the average citizen. Second, we argue that voters prefer a model candidate with similar basic value-related personality traits. Importantly, we show that trait congruence is partly mediated by core ideological preferences and thus ensures democratic representation. The study’s findings have implications for personalization of politics and democratic representation, because personality traits can be vital cues for voters deciding whether candidates will act in their interest and represent them well.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Government
- External organisation(s)
- University of Vienna
- Journal
- Journal of Research in Personality
- Volume
- 88
- ISSN
- 0092-6566
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2020.103990
- Publication date
- 2020
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 506012 Political systems, 501004 Differential psychology
- Keywords
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Psychology, Social Psychology
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/38b8e07d-1053-4ebc-992b-c981df31e161