When Choosing a President, Issues are Not Enough: Study Reveals Surprising Factors...

When Choosing a President, Issues are Not Enough: Study Reveals Surprising
Factors that Form Voter Attitudes
Research News from the Journal of Leadership Studies

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 26 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As the Texas and Ohio
primaries near, the 2008 presidential election promises to be one of the most
interesting elections in U.S. history. With Democratic candidates neck and
neck in the polls and McCain a virtual shoe-in for the Republican nomination,
voters are already thinking ahead to November 4th and asking themselves for
whom they might vote. But is it the candidates' positions on issues what
drives voters' decisions at the polls or are there other variables at work?
An article to be published in the new Journal of Leadership Studies (Wiley
Periodicals, Inc.) on February 28th discusses results of researching and
analyzing data from the seven most recent U.S. presidential elections
comparing Democratic and Republican Party candidates who were successful in
securing votes. The analysis reveals what tipped the scales with voters and
how perceptions of leader intelligence, feelings of pride and hope, as well as
feelings of fear and anger, were found to impact the decision process, rather
than the issues that candidates present.
Researchers M. David Albritton, Sharon L. Oswald and Joseph S. Anderson
used data from the National Election Studies (NES) division of the Center for
Political Studies at the University of Michigan to expand upon previous work
on voter attitudes, perceptions of leaders, and voter support. They found
perceived intelligence, inspirational qualities, and charisma to be key
factors in the formation of voter opinion. Instead of the varying positions
on issues, voter's perceptions of these key traits are found to be predictors
of whether or not that voter will consider a leader to be of high quality.
How a candidate's charisma as well as how fear plays into a voter's
evaluation was also examined. Intuitively perhaps, fear played a negative role
toward a candidate. Individuals who generated stronger feelings of voter fear
were considered "lower quality leaders." However, fear also helped shape
positive behaviors toward a rival candidate. Surprisingly, charisma,
traditionally considered an asset, was often viewed negatively when framed in
the context of manipulating others toward personal gain.
Using the tripartite model of attitude structure as a conceptual basis,
the paper investigates voter attitudes towards presidential candidates,
including: -- Beliefs about leadership characteristics
-- Ability for voters to understand and predict behavior
-- Cognitive evaluation of political leadership
-- Feeling and emotional responses to candidates

The study positioned the leadership process as a relationship between
voters and candidates. Between the cognitive, affective, and overall
intentions to behave in a certain manner, the process was complex and the
outcomes were surprising. With the poll numbers as close as they are, don't
be surprised to find this study in every candidate's research notes out on the
campaign trail.
To access the article, please visit
www.interscience.wiley.com/journal/jls.

SOURCE Journal of Leadership Studies

Amy Packard for Journal of Leadership Studies, +1-415-782-3177,
APackard@wiley.com