Candidate Image

Candidate Image

“Electoral victors are those who excel at projecting imagery and symbolism, but not necessarily those who offer substantive expertise, political experience or pragmatism.”

Iyengar

Candidate Image

Kenneth Hacker, an expert on political images, considers a candidate image as a sort of total impression of a candidate held by a member of the voting public

Includes issue beliefs as well as personality considerations

How important is image?

Experts debate the importance of pure image vis-à-vis other vote influences such as political party and issue stands, but most acknowledge that it is a significant factor in vote choice

Greater for the less-well-informed

“Some critics of American electoral politics have lamented the fact that images have supplanted the meaningful discussion of issues in contemporary campaigns. Image-dominated campaigns are faulted for oversimplifying issues and confusing voters.”

Hollihan

“Studies have consistently demonstrated that candidate images are very important predictors of how people will vote”

Hollihan

“The fact that voters now are more likely to make their own choices between candidates has been cited as at least partly to blame for the increasing dependence on image-dominated political campaigns.”

Hollihan

, p. 83

Why is political image so important? First, it has been found that voters react better to personal perceptions of the candidates than to objective reality (Sears, 1983). According to Sears (1969), "persons represent unusually simple stimuli, easily cognized and retained“ (p.364). Second, perceptions of candidate traits provide individuals with a good way to organize all the daily information that becomes available about political issues (Kinder, 1986). Kinder also suggested that personality traits are seen as stable over time, and by ascribing traits to their political leaders, individuals have some basis for gauging the reaction of their political leadership to future demands of their office.

Gallup

What are the components of the image?

Image dimensions

Homophily

Traits

Honesty

Intelligence

Independence

“With regard to trust and integrity, research suggests that voters are very sensitive to a candidate’s physical appearance.”

Hollihan

, p. 94

Self-deprecating humor appreciated by voters

Non-verbal behaviors

Sensitive to candidate age

Charisma

“ability to project confidence, enthusiasm, optimism, goal-orientation, inspirational leadership, and compassion”

Hollihan

, p. 98

“may also be one who conveys a warm and friendly image, show seems genuine and personable, who is comfortable speaking, and who has the capacity to speak from his or her heart—or at least has can make us so believe”

Must be appropriate to the situation

Political image

Party identification

Ideological commitments

Issue positions

Linkages to other political figures or interest groups

Personal image

Age

Intellectual abilities

Speaking style

Source: August 28, 2008 Obama Still Lags McCain as Leader, Commander in Chief: Obama’s strengths lie in domestic, softer issues

by Frank Newport available at: http://www.gallup.com/poll/109891/Obama-Still-Lags-McCain-Leader-Commander-Chief.aspx

Source: July 16, 2010 Palin's 76% Favorable Among Republicans Tops Others in GOP: Former Alaska governor's image more mixed among all Americans

by Frank Newport

National

Adults

Republicans/

Lean

Republican

Democrats/

Lean

Democratic

%

%

%

Personal Qualities

Honesty/straightforward

33

30

34

Integrity

10

13

7

Good moral character/family values

5

8

2

Intelligence

5

4

6

Honorable

4

5

3

Trustworthy

4

4

5

Christian

3

6

*

Common sense

1

1

1

Charisma

*

*

1

Total percentage of all mentions

(Note: Results could overlap among some respondents.)

65

71

59

Voters are especially interested in the issue of trust and the honesty of the candidate

How are images developed?

Image consultants

Advertising

Pro-candidate

Anti-opposition

Careful staging of public presentation

Events (may or may not be under candidate control)

News coverage

Popular culture

Comedians, etc.

“In plying their craft, political consultants (whom we refer to as image handlers) take a rather formulaic approach to crafting candidate images. Typically, polling is used to identify salient issues on the minds of voters. The next step is to assess which of these issues play to their client’s advantage. A campaign strategy is then devised to prime the audience on those issues, deploying images, symbols, and phrases that will connect the candidate to those issues in the minds of voters”

Grabe

and

Bucy

“While

critics of modern campaigns sometimes

argue that

candidate images are molded like clay,

candidates generally

do not conjure an image from scratch.

Rather, candidates

present themselves selectively to

emphasize their

personal strengths and deemphasize

their weaknesses.”

Steger, Candidate Image

Republican Rebranding

Managing the visuals

Candidate appearance

Hair

Clothes

Environment

Where photo-ops occur

Who the candidate is with

Symbols

Candidate Image

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2008/story?id=6057246&page=1

Three major types of candidate image bites

Statesman

Populist

Sure Loser

Grabe

and

Bucy

Media choices

Variety shows

Placing spots

Exclusives to journalists

Content emphases

Leadership qualities

Military record

Business experience

Steadfastness

Relationship with current government

Maverick

Outsider

Successful legislator, etc.

Rick Snyder for Michigan

Super Bowl Ad

Content emphases

Compassion/care for the weak

Regardless of actual record

Honesty/Integrity

Scandals

“Candidates

also try to frame their political role

characteristics favorably

. For example, experience in

government may

be portrayed as proof of a candidate’s

competence, while

a lack of experience may be portrayed

as having

new ideas or as uncorrupted by the system

.”

Steger

http://videos.howstuffworks.com/hsw/24026-campaign-essentials-image-management-video.htm

Obama image development

Top 10 Campaign Promises

Trying to influence your opponent’s image

Baucus ad against Mike Taylor, 2002 Senatorial race

Anti-Democratic Party ad by National Republican

Campaign Committee

Image construction may vary by medium

“As an audiovisual medium that literally traffics in images, television is ideally suited to convey character information. Indeed, most news stories may be too short to do anything

except present information about the candidate’s character and personality

(Graber, 1987). “

Grabe

and

Bucy

Lewis

“Images

are formed, reinforced, or modified as voters encounter new bits of information that interact with their existing information base

. . . a

given bit of information may have different meaning to different people, so a candidate’s image is largely in the eye of the beholder

.”

Steger

“most

voters’ images of candidates are

affected by

their party loyalties, ideological orientations,

and deep-seated

political attitudes relevant to the

processing of

information about candidates. The

electorate tends

to see or invent what is favorable and

distort or

deny much of what is unfavorable, with respect

to these

prior beliefs

.”

Steger

“In

the absence of information about the candidates, as occurs in low visibility elections, partisan voters may construct images of candidates consistent with their expectations and preferences

.”

Steger