2016 Presidential Election: Self-ratings of personality showed weak associations with political preferences, appraisal of candidates’ personality robustly associated; appraisals stronger predictor than demographics, political party, racial attitudes

Personality and political preferences: The 2016 U.S. Presidential Election. Jo Ann A. Abe. Journal of Research in Personality, Volume 77, December 2018, Pages 70-82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2018.09.001

Highlights
•    Self-ratings of personality showed weak associations with political preferences.
•    Appraisal of candidates’ personality robustly associated with political preferences.
•    Appraisals stronger predictor than demographics, political party, racial attitudes.
•    Appraisals related to linguistic markers of liberal, conservative, populist values.

Abstract: This study examined whether personality variables would account for political preferences during the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election using a demographically diverse sample of participants (N = 897). Study A revealed participants’ ratings of their own personality and emotions were weakly associated with political preferences, but their ratings of candidates’ personality showed robust associations, and were far more predictive of voting intention than all of the demographic variables, political affiliation, and racial attitudes combined. In Study B, linguistic analysis of narratives revealed words reflective of liberal values were correlated with positive evaluations of Clinton’s personality, whereas words reflective of conservative values and “populist” sentiment were correlated with positive evaluations of Trump’s personality, suggesting appraisals of candidates may be associated with values.