ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the role that the nonverbal behavior of politicians may play in influencing voter emotions, and how the immediate responses may mediate political attitudes and cognitions, and voting and other consumption behaviors relevant to political marketing. Party-centered models, which dominated in the 1940s through the early 1960s, conceptualize voting behavior as a choice between parties based on the voter’s long-standing party loyalties. Policy-centered models of voting behavior gained ascendancy in the 1960s and 1970s, a period during which much attention was focused on the polarization of the electorate first during the Vietnam War and later during the failure of the Nixon presidency. In political advertising and media coverage of a campaign, the candidate is not always the sole focus of attention. Voters are exposed to politicians in the context of news stories, press conferences, political advertisements, as well as special appearances.
