Who do you like? Who will you vote for? Political ideology and person perception in the 2020 U.S. presidential election

Abstract

AbstractThis work separately applies two psychology frameworks—the three dimensions along which people are evaluated (competence, morality, and warmth) and individual sociopolitical attitudes (modern sexism [MS], right‐wing authoritarianism [RWA], and social dominance orientation (SDO)—to explore voter evaluations of Donald Trump and Joseph Biden both prior to (Study 1), and in the month following (Study 2), the 2020 U.S. presidential election. At both time points, Democrats and Republicans rated their own party's candidate similarly on the three trait dimensions and overall favorability. They differed, however, in evaluations of the other party's candidate. Republicans viewed Biden more positively both overall and on the trait dimensions than Democrats viewed Trump. Favorability ratings and trait perceptions for one's own party candidate were comparable pre‐ and postelection but were more negative postelection for the opposite party's candidate. RWA predicted favorability toward Trump, above and beyond political affiliation and sociodemographic factors, at both time points in addition to MS preelection and SDO postelection; RWA negatively predicted favorability toward Biden pre‐ but not postelection. Moreover, RWA predicted a vote for Trump versus Biden above and beyond political affiliation, highlighting the importance of considering sociopolitical attitudes in political decision‐making.