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Perceiving Politicians: How Personality, Information Selection, and Candidate-Incongruence Shape Evaluations
No full textVoters’ decision-making processes are shaped by a complex interplay of individual characteristics and contextual factors. While research has long emphasized the role of political ideology and demographic variables in shaping political preferences, recent studies highlight the growing importance of psychological traits in information processing and candidate evaluation. Individuals do not passively absorb political information, instead, they selectively seek and interpret cues that align with their preexisting dispositions.This dissertation explores how individual differences - both structural and psychological - shape voters’ perceptions of political candidates and their engagement with political information. Specifically, it examines (1) the role of socioeconomic status (SES) in shaping the perceived importance of political competence, mediated by self-perceived competence, (2) how fundamental personality traits, particularly the Big Two dimensions (agency and communion), influence selective information search about political candidates, and (3) how exposure to candidate-incongruent information affects candidate evaluation, depending on voters’ predisposed party identification.The findings contribute to the literature in three key ways. First, they offer insights into how SES shapes candidate trait preferences, demonstrating that individuals’ self-perceptions mediate the link between structural position and political judgment. Second, they integrate research on personality and political behavior, showing that core personality dimensions systematically drive voters’ information selection. Third, they provide evidence on the effects of candidate-incongruent information, highlighting the role of partisan identity in moderating how voters process and evaluate conflicting candidate cues. By connecting these strands of research, this dissertation advances our understanding of how deep-seated individual traits interact with contextual factors to shape political decision-making. In doing so, it provides theoretical and empirical perspectives on the psychology of voter behavior and offers implications for research on political communication and electoral campaigns
