We vote for the person, not the policies: a systematic review on how personality traits influence voting behaviour

Abstract

Western democracies’ voting practices have altered recently, most notably with candidates now taking center stage at the expense of the institutions. These events are the result of a phenomenon called the personalisation of politics. The present review aims to synthesize evidence regarding the impact of voters’ evaluation of candidates’ traits on political outcomes and the effects of voters’ traits on voting. Included studies were identified via electronic databases (up to July 2019). Reviewers extracted data respecting inclusion and exclusion criteria. Methodological quality was assessed independently by two reviewers. Data synthesis was executed through narrative processes. 288 studies were identified, 12 of which were selected for review. Four main outcomes were found: (i) Personality traits and voting behaviour; (ii) Implicit/explicit trait associations and political outcomes; (iii) Party identification and personality traits; and (iv) Ideology and personality traits. Data obtained suggests that political outcomes are heavily influenced by voters’ personality traits and how they perceive the personality traits of the candidates. This review advances the theory of personality trait matching and establishes a connection between traits and the personalization of politics.

The Grand Finale

“…The literature highlights the importance of candidates' traits in explaining the relationship between voters' personality and voting as well as between their assessments of candidates and the underlying mechanisms that govern voting decisions (Falcão et al, 2023). Traits reflect efficient processes based on stereotyping information into images that are used to assess people on a daily basis (Costa & Ferreira da Silva, 2015).…”

“…The personality of the candidates is all the more important as politics becomes more complex and voters have less time to evaluate candidates (Wicks et al, 2017). Political campaigns nowadays are largely centred on the candidate, typically the party leader in European political systems (Falcão et al, 2023). The “personalisation of politics”, or “candidate-centred politics” (Ribes-Giner & Fuentes-Blasco, 2014), refers to a process where the power of the candidate as an individual is accentuated at the expense of institutions (Ferreira Da Silva & Costa, 2019).…”

“…Traits reflect efficient processes based on stereotyping information into images that are used to assess people on a daily basis (Costa & Ferreira da Silva, 2015). However, due to the large number of variables that need to be considered and reduced sample sizes, it is impractical to examine each trait separately (Falcão et al, 2023). For this reason, scholars tend to categorize traits into dimensions (Bittner, 2013).…”