Politicians wish to be heard – to land a soundbite on the nightly information, to promote their legislative accomplishments and to have individuals know their platform. However when given alternatives to speak to voters, they usually share particulars about their private lives as an alternative.
Presidential candidate Tim Scott used a September 2023 look on Fox Information to speak about his courting life, saying that voters would quickly meet his girlfriend. On Twitter, Senator Ted Cruz usually posts soccer clips and selfies at sporting occasions.
And in July 2023, President Joe Biden, who has described himself as an “ice cream man,” tweeted an image of himself holding an ice cream cone captioned, “In my e-book, daily is Nationwide Ice Cream Day.”
This development of politicians sharing private info isn’t new.
One examine of marketing campaign tweets discovered that congressional candidates in 2012 had been extra more likely to tweet about their private lives than their coverage platforms.
Why do politicians share a lot from their private lives on the marketing campaign path?
I’m a scholar of political science, and my analysis exhibits that when individuals see elected officers as individuals and never simply politicians, it boosts their recognition. It additionally reduces get together polarization in individuals’s views of politicians.
‘Home of Playing cards’ to scorching sauce
My analysis was impressed by the weekly column, “25 Issues You Didn’t Know About Me” printed within the celeb leisure journal Us Weekly. Whereas actors, musicians and actuality tv personalities commonly share information about themselves or their private lives on this column, a number of politicians have been featured over time.
In 2016, then-presidential candidate Cruz shared the journal that his first online game was Pong and that he has watched each episode of the Netflix drama collection “Home of Playing cards.” When she was working for president in 2016, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton shared that she loves thriller novels and places scorching sauce on the whole lot.
I used to be enthusiastic about whether or not these sorts of autobiographical and apolitical particulars modified how individuals consider elected officers.
As a part of my analysis, I famous 5 gadgets from the listing Cruz supplied to Us Weekly in 2016, together with 5 comparable autobiographical particulars collected from the information that very same 12 months about Senator Bernie Sanders.
Particulars about Cruz included that his favourite film is “The Princess Bride” and that he was as soon as suspended in highschool for skipping class to play foosball. Sanders, in the meantime, has shared in information interviews that he’s a fan of the tv present “Trendy Household” and that he proposed to his spouse within the parking zone of a Pleasant’s restaurant.
I then shared these particulars with a nationally consultant pattern of 1,000 People in a survey carried out simply earlier than the 2020 election. Half had been requested to only fee the senator, whereas the opposite half got one in all these lists of autobiographical particulars earlier than score their favorability towards the senator.
I discovered that those that learn autobiographical particulars gave hotter evaluations of the politicians than those that didn’t study these information.
Although each Cruz and Sanders are well-known and arguably polarizing politicians, members of the general public nonetheless shifted their opinions of the senators once they came upon slightly extra about them as individuals.
I additionally discovered that these autobiographical particulars led to candidate scores that had been much less polarized alongside get together traces.
Individuals’s get together loyalties sometimes decide their views of elected officers. Individuals supply optimistic scores of politicians who share their partisan loyalties and really damaging scores of these from the opposing get together.
However in my analysis, I discovered that minor particulars like Cruz’s penchant for canned soup had been particularly more likely to increase his scores amongst Democrats. And Sanders’ love of the musical group ABBA was particularly seemingly to enhance his favorability scores amongst Republicans.
We all know that folks have a tendency to judge new info via the lens of their partisan biases. Individuals usually settle for new info that reinforces their views, and are skeptical of data that’s inconsistent with their prior beliefs.
However when politicians share autobiographical particulars, individuals see them as people – and never simply via the lens of their common partisan biases. When politicians speak about their private lives, it not solely appeals to their supporters, however dampens the negativity individuals really feel towards politicians from the opposing get together.
What this implies for politics
Even in a time the place partisanship drives elections, there’s nonetheless worth in being likable.
For elected officers who wish to increase their help amongst supporters of rival partisans, shifting the main target to character slightly than partisan politics could be a helpful technique.
I feel that this strategy might additionally assist depolarize politics.
If political campaigns centered extra on the candidates slightly than replaying acquainted partisan divides, views of elected officers can be much less polarized alongside get together traces.
It may be tempting to dismiss the political content material in late evening discuss exhibits or celeb leisure magazines as mere fluff and a distraction from severe coverage debates. However we additionally know that coverage points hardly ever matter for the votes individuals solid. As an alternative, get together loyalties decide a lot of individuals’s decision-making. In a time of deeply partisan politics, it’s helpful to search out methods to interrupt partisan biases and reduce polarization.