Candidate Character Traits
Voters also judge candidates by their personal characteristics. Included among the relevant characteristics are such things as the experience, honesty, morality, compassion, competence, and leadership ability of the candidates (Holian and Prysby 2015; Nimmo and Savage 1976; Page 1978, 232-265). Apart from how they see the candidates on the issues, voters form images of the personal qualities and abilities of the candidates, and these perceptions are important influences on the vote. One important aspect of personal character is the perceived honesty and trustworthiness of the candidates—what might be termed an integrity dimension. Another important dimension, which might be termed competence, involves the experience and knowledge of the candidates; in particular, voters are unlikely to vote for someone whom they feel lacks the experience and ability to handle the job of president. A third important dimension involves the leadership ability of the candidates. Those who are perceived as strong and inspiring leaders are much more likely to be preferred by the voters. Finally, there is an empathy dimension; voters favor candidates whom they see as concerned and caring about people like them. These four dimensions of personal traits may vary in their importance; perhaps one of the dimensions will be particularly important in any given election, while another will be relatively unimportant in that election (Holian and Prysby 2015, 104-110, Miller and Shanks 1996, 425-427).
The character traits of the candidates received considerable attention in the 2016 presidential election, perhaps more than in any other recent election. Democrats criticized Donald Trump for his lack of political experience, his shallow understanding of many issues, his bombastic and inflammatory rhetoric, and his lack of integrity. Republican attacks on Hillary Clinton focused especially on her integrity, but her lengthy record of government experience led to charges that she was too much of an insider in a system that was badly broken. Trump's inexperience became, according to this narrative, a virtue, not a liability: he was the outsider who could clean up the mess in Washington.
While candidate character traits received particularly great attention in the 2016 presidential election, other recent presidential elections also have focused on the significance of candidate character traits, such as competence in 1980, leadership in 1984, patriotism in 1988, trustworthiness in 1992 and 1996, integrity and leadership ability in 2000, decisiveness and leadership in 2004, and leadership and empathy in 2008 and 2012. Voters seem to regard their vote for president as a very personal one, and they consider the character of the candidates seriously. Moreover, candidates have often emphasized such traits when they felt that it would be advantageous to do so. The dataset contains a number of measures of respondent evaluations of candidate personal characteristics, allowing one to examine the influence of these factors in 2016.