A time‐series analysis of presidential images and presidential popularity

Abstract

Abstract Conflicting fingdings about the determinants of fluctuations in presidential popularity over time have emerged from the three dozen or more studies that have been completed to date. These studies have all employed “macroenviron‐mental” indicators, almost all of which are related to such policy‐relevant areas as international affairs, inflation and unemployment, and the like. What these studies have overlooked is that images, not reality, shape presidential approval. The present study relates public images of presidential performance in various policy areas and of the president's personality to the dynamics of presidential popularity, 1970–1973, and concludes that the policy orientation of previous studies has been misguided: fluctuations in presidential popularity, 1970–1973, were strongly related to the public image of the president as a person, but not to the perceived effectiveness of the president in various policy‐making areas. Implications for the president and for students of the presidenc...