Components of candidate images: Statistical analysis of the issue‐persona dichotomy in the presidential campaign of 1996

Abstract

For several decades candidate image studies have typically conceptualized and operationalized candidate images as source credibility traits or persona impressions. Candidate issue positions have been minimized in such research and excluded from the candidate image construct. Thus, candidate images have been treated as clusters of persona impressions only, implying that issue perceptions are unimportant in the formation of candidate images. Accordingly, a dichotomy emerged which split candidate image as candidate persona impressions from candidate issue positions, treating the latter as separate and independent determinants of vote. Later research indicated that candidate image content was largely unknown by voters, and some researchers argued that candidate images most likely include both issue and persona impressions. The dichotomy persisted, however, because of the assumption that voters process candidate persona impressions more than candidate issue positions perceptions and that these two types of perceptions are orthogonal. Employing panel data from a random sample of community members and applying correlational and structural equation modeling procedures, the researchers found that the data do not support the issue‐persona dichotomy assumptions. Instead, they lend credence to a more cognitive view of candidate images. Such a view conceptualizes candidate images as integrated structures of issue perceptions, persona perceptions, and whatever other kinds of perceptions are important to particular voters in particular elections.