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When Likeness Goes with Liking: The Case of Political Preference
Author(s) -
Caprara Gian Vittorio,
Vecchione Michele,
Barbaranelli Claudio,
Fraley R. Chris
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
political psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.419
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1467-9221
pISSN - 0162-895X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9221.2007.00592.x
Subject(s) - preference , politics , similarity (geometry) , social psychology , attraction , psychology , george (robot) , political science , law , art , statistics , philosophy , mathematics , linguistics , artificial intelligence , computer science , image (mathematics) , art history
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.