Candidate image and electoral preference in Britain
Candidate image and electoral preference in Britain
The UK Electoral Commission has recommended pilot testing of ballot papers printed with photographs of the candidates. In the light of US studies showing that voters make judgements about politicians based on appearance, and that these judgements can influence vote, we conducted an experiment to explore the potential impact of candidate appearance on voting behaviour in Britain. Our findings indicate that, even controlling for the partisanship of both the MP and the respondent, trait evaluations based on appearance are significant and, in the case of 'warmth' traits like likeability and caring, powerful predictors of probability to vote. We find little evidence of electoral advantage for those candidates who 'trespass' on traits associated with the opposing party; in general, the traits rewarded in candidates vary little according to the partisanship of either the candidate or the resoondent.
Ballot design, British elections, Candidate evaluation, Candidate image, Trait attribution
324-349
Shephard, Mark
7bc46660-bf18-4a77-97dd-102cf8e42b08
Johns, Robert
02861bc9-b704-49b1-bbc7-cf1c1e9b7a35
September 2008
Shephard, Mark
7bc46660-bf18-4a77-97dd-102cf8e42b08
Johns, Robert
02861bc9-b704-49b1-bbc7-cf1c1e9b7a35
Shephard, Mark and Johns, Robert
(2008)
Candidate image and electoral preference in Britain.
British Politics, 3 (3), .
(doi:10.1057/bp.2008.8).
Abstract
The UK Electoral Commission has recommended pilot testing of ballot papers printed with photographs of the candidates. In the light of US studies showing that voters make judgements about politicians based on appearance, and that these judgements can influence vote, we conducted an experiment to explore the potential impact of candidate appearance on voting behaviour in Britain. Our findings indicate that, even controlling for the partisanship of both the MP and the respondent, trait evaluations based on appearance are significant and, in the case of 'warmth' traits like likeability and caring, powerful predictors of probability to vote. We find little evidence of electoral advantage for those candidates who 'trespass' on traits associated with the opposing party; in general, the traits rewarded in candidates vary little according to the partisanship of either the candidate or the resoondent.
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e-pub ahead of print date: 19 August 2008
Published date: September 2008
Keywords:
Ballot design, British elections, Candidate evaluation, Candidate image, Trait attribution
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 489801
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/489801
ISSN: 1746-918X
PURE UUID: 379437ca-3cb0-423f-9579-8623fdc2c8df
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Date deposited: 02 May 2024 16:37
Last modified: 03 May 2024 02:07
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Author:
Mark Shephard
Author:
Robert Johns
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