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Voters develop uniquely simplified perceptions of political candidates' personalities during election campaigns. In an earlier study, voters described their own personalities, & also those of celebrities, using the same five factors typical of the Big Five model of personality. In contrast, the appraisal of political candidates' personalities by voters in both Italy & the US was reduced to only a few factors. The present research extends that exploration of the relationship between personality & politics to the public's perception of politicians' personalities across a wider variety of politicians & across a long time span after an election campaign. Two studies conducted in Italy, with more than 3,000 voters, replicated the earlier results: The factors of Energy & Agreeableness are primary anchors for evaluating politicians' personalities both during campaigns & for several years thereafter. Also uncovered were congruences between the ways that voters tend to present themselves (self-schemata) & the schemata they use to evaluate candidates representing their political preference. 4 Tables, 32 References. Adapted from the source document.

Voters develop uniquely simplified perceptions of political candidates' personalities during election campaigns. In an earlier study, voters described their own personalities, and also those of celebrities, using the same five factors typical of the Big Five model of personality. In contrast, the appraisal of political candidates' personalities by voters in both Italy and the United States was reduced to only a few factors. The present research extends that exploration of the relationship between personality and politics to the public's perception of politicians' personalities across a wider variety of politicians and across a long time span after an election campaign. Two studies conducted in Italy, with more than 3,000 voters, replicated the earlier results: The factors of Energy and Agreeableness are primary anchors for evaluating politicians' personalities both during campaigns and for several years thereafter. Also uncovered were congruences between the ways that voters tend to present themselves (self‐schemata) and the schemata they use to evaluate candidates representing their political preference.

This paper explores relationships between basic personality profiles of voters and their political party preferences. The Italian political system has moved recently from previously extreme, ideologically distinctive parties to form complex coalitions varying around more centrist orientations. Significant evidence was found for the utility of the Five‐Factor Model of Personality in distinguishing between voters' expressed preferences, even given this greater subtlety in proposed values and agendas. More than 2,000 Italian voters who self‐identified as having voted for new center‐left or center‐right political coalitions differed systematically in predicted directions on several personality dimensions measured by the Big Five Questionnaire. In the context of the model, center‐right voters displayed more Energy and slightly more Conscientiousness than center‐left voters, whose dominant personality characteristics were Agreeableness (Friendliness) and Openness; Emotional Stability was unrelated to either group. This relationship between individual differences in personality and political preferences was not influenced by the demographic variables of voters' gender, age, or education. Thus, personality dimensions proved to be stronger predictors of political preference than any of these standard predictor variables. Implications are discussed regarding links among personality, persuasion, power, and politics.

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.

Three studies show that people tend to vote for politicians (i.e., either Romano Prodi or Silvio Berlusconi in Italy or George W. Bush or John Kerry in the United States) whose traits they rate as being most similar to their own. People perceived higher similarity between themselves and political figures with respect to traits that were most distinctive of each platform and their respective leaders. These findings, while corroborating the similarity‐attraction relationship, further attest to the role that personal characteristics of both voters and candidates play in orienting political preference.

Abstract. This research addresses the important issue of abortion, still controversial in Western countries. It provides a new perspective by examining attitudes not to abortion itself, but to women and their partners who decide to have an abortion. Through two experimental studies, we expected and found that the decision to abort increased moral outrage toward a woman (Study 1 and Study 2) and her male partner (Study 2). Moreover, we found that the decision to abort reduced a woman's (Study 1 and Study 2) and man's (Study 2) humanness through the mediation of elicited moral outrage. These findings clarify the continuing prevalence and perpetuation of disparaging attitudes toward those who seek an abortion, and suggest many directions for future research.