ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts discussed in preceding chapters of this book. The book provides a broad and comprehensive treatment of the role that voter perceptions of candidate character traits play in presidential elections, relying on some decades of survey data on the American electorate. Voters readily form perceptions of the character traits of presidential candidates, and the traits that they see as relevant can be conceptualized as falling along four basic dimensions: leadership, competence, integrity, and empathy. Perceptions of candidate character traits exert a strong overall influence on the vote in presidential elections. The rise of television clearly focused popular attention on candidates as the focal points of presidential campaigns. The Internet has the potential to permit people to actively access more substantive, issue-based information about the candidates, as opposed to remaining passive receptors of image-based advertising and broadcast news reports.
