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<p>The literatures of social psychology, personality, and political psychology discuss a variety of perceived characteristics contributing to political candidates’ appeal and electability, including trustworthiness (e.g., making reliable and valid claims, not lying habitually), compassion, and relevant experience. A less studied characteristic in a candidate’s profile is <i>affective appeal</i>: A set of imbued traits that enable a candidate to successfully reach a constituency even when that candidate lacks compassion and demonstrates a casual relationship with “the truth”, regularly making claims not grounded in empirical evidence as determined by fact checkers, journalists, social scientists, and academics. This study (<i>N</i> = 473) describes development of a unidimensional, 7-item, Likert-type scale for measuring affective appeal (α = 0.91). In a regression model (<i>F</i> = 101.14, <i>p</i> &lt;.001), five factors accounted for 58% of the variance of affective appeal, including: Lack of confidence in scientists and academics, acceptance of a lack of civility in their political leaders, preference for candidates who are active on social media, and lower scores on social media literacy. One-Way AVOVAs comparing low, medium, and high scores on affective appeal revealed significant (<i>p</i> &lt;.0001) linear relationships with multiple variables, including belief in voter fraud, Christian Nationalist views, toxic masculinity, social dominance orientation, authoritarianism, Machiavellianism, and narcissism. Implications for educators and future research are discussed.</p>

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Why are political candidates, who lack trustworthiness, compassion, and experience, viable? Affective appeal, its psychometric characteristics, and preliminary findings

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2025年5月21日

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  • Kyle D. Killian

摘要

The literatures of social psychology, personality, and political psychology discuss a variety of perceived characteristics contributing to political candidates’ appeal and electability, including trustworthiness (e.g., making reliable and valid claims, not lying habitually), compassion, and relevant experience. A less studied characteristic in a candidate’s profile is affective appeal: A set of imbued traits that enable a candidate to successfully reach a constituency even when that candidate lacks compassion and demonstrates a casual relationship with “the truth”, regularly making claims not grounded in empirical evidence as determined by fact checkers, journalists, social scientists, and academics. This study (N = 473) describes development of a unidimensional, 7-item, Likert-type scale for measuring affective appeal (α = 0.91). In a regression model (F = 101.14, p <.001), five factors accounted for 58% of the variance of affective appeal, including: Lack of confidence in scientists and academics, acceptance of a lack of civility in their political leaders, preference for candidates who are active on social media, and lower scores on social media literacy. One-Way AVOVAs comparing low, medium, and high scores on affective appeal revealed significant (p <.0001) linear relationships with multiple variables, including belief in voter fraud, Christian Nationalist views, toxic masculinity, social dominance orientation, authoritarianism, Machiavellianism, and narcissism. Implications for educators and future research are discussed.