The Personalization of Politics

Abstract

We examine how the traits and values of both candidates and voters contribute to political choice, using the five-factor model of traits and the Schwartz (1992 ) theory of basic personal values. 1,164 subjects reported their voting intention, their own traits and values, and those they perceived in the leader of one Italian political coalition (center-right or center-left). As hypothesized, voters simplified their personality judgments of politicians. Instead of the 5 trait factors and 10 basic values they employed in self-descriptions, they described the politicians using 2 trait factors (integrity and leadership) and 2 value dimensions (concern for others vs. self and excitement vs. caution). Logistic regressions revealed that voters’ own values predicted voting intention as hypothesized based on the policies advocated by the coalitions. Values trumped both own traits and demographic characteristics. The perceived traits and values of candidates accounted for additional variance in voting intention. The traits on which voters perceived a politician as weaker (Prodi’s leadership and Berlusconi’s integrity) were more decisive in orienting political preferences. We discuss explanations and implications of these findings.