Implications of Political Expertise in Candidate Trait Evaluations

Abstract

Candidate trait images have an important impact on global judgment. The present study addresses (1) which traits matter in candidate evalua tions and (2) political expertise differences in trait-based evaluations. An unweighted version of the on-line processing model would suggest that all traits impact the running tally in equal measure. Others have argued that some traits (in particular, more task-relevant traits) should matter more than others from a normative perspective. Furthermore, some past research has suggested that all individuals use traits in the same manner on the grounds that trait judgments of others are common in everyday experience. Greater cognitive complexity among political experts, how ever, would suggest that experts should be more likely to differentiate between traits in judgment. The present study uses an experimental de sign to manipulate candidate trait images on two dimensions: compe tence and warmth. Results show that candidate competence is preferred over warmth, although this preference is only evident among political experts. The pattern of results suggests that political experts make more distinctions between trait content dimensions, consistent with a greater cognitive complexity among experts. These results provide direct evi dence that citizens distinguish among candidate trait qualities and tend to evaluate competence more favorably than warmth.