Perceiving Politicians as True to Themselves: Development and Validation of the Perceived Political Authenticity Scale

Abstract

Although being perceived as authentic is seen as a success factor in modern political communication, little attention has been paid to how citizens evaluate politicians’ authenticity. The state of research thus lacks a valid instrument to measure citizens’ perceptions of politicians’ authenticity. This article addresses this gap in the literature and proposes a new multidimensional scale of perceived political authenticity. We conducted three consecutive studies to test the instrument’s composition, performance, and validity and present a final 12-item scale. Results from an expert panel and two online quota surveys show that citizens rely on three political authenticity dimensions - ordinariness, consistency, and immediacy - to judge politicians’ authenticity. Factor analyses were used to establish construct validity and show that the new scale is a robust and reliable measure. Finally, we find that higher perceived political authenticity is positively associated with party identification and the intention to vote for politicians.