Changing Electoral Contexts and Changing Candidate Images During the 1984 Presidential Campaign

Abstract

In his 1986 article, Donald R. Kinder argued that the images which people hold of well-known political figures may be linked to four rudimentary cognitive dimensions: strength, competence, integrity, and empathy. Furthermore, judgments about the personalities of politicians are said to be stable over time. To verify the structure and the stability of images, Kinder conducted a survey over a four-week period. This study examined these two points further by extending the range of time to one year, 1984, in which a presidential campaign occurred. Significant changes in both the content and the structure of citizen ratings of the two principal presidential candidates were found. These changes were attributed to the changing electoral contexts during that election year.

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