In order to investigate the influence of voice pitch and facial dominance on voting behaviour and leadership perceptions, an experiment including 180 Dutch adults was conducted containing a 2*3...Show moreIn order to investigate the influence of voice pitch and facial dominance on voting behaviour and leadership perceptions, an experiment including 180 Dutch adults was conducted containing a 2*3 factorial design. The participants were exposed to a normal and manipulated picture of Jan-peter Balkenende, the former Dutch prime-minister. Respondents were also exposed to a manipulated version of his voice in which the voice pitch had been lowered by 20 herz. The respondents seemed unaware of the picture and voice pitch manipulations as the respondents exposed to the manipulations noted to be just as familiar with the person displayed on the picture as respondents in the control group. However, the manipulations did not have the effect that was expected based on previous studies, the experiment largely showed the subtle nature of these effects on leadership perceptions and voting behaviour. The findings in this study indicate the limited influence of voice pitch and facial dominance on voting behaviour and perceptions of a well known leader's dominance, honesty and power.Show less
The role of ideology and religion on voting behaviour has declined. But, what does then determine voting behaviour nowadays? New dimensions and (short-term) factors seem to play a role and there is...Show moreThe role of ideology and religion on voting behaviour has declined. But, what does then determine voting behaviour nowadays? New dimensions and (short-term) factors seem to play a role and there is more attention to the personalization thesis. Some politicians are treated as celebrities and image, appearance and also clothing are subjects considered to be important. The suits of Mark Rutte and Diederik Samsom have been widely discussed in the run-up to the 2012 Dutch parliamentary elections. Does fashion rule? The central question of this master thesis is: Does the clothing style of politicians influence trait perceptions and voting behaviour of Dutch voters? A quantitative analysis of data obtained by an experimental study will be the basis for this research. Unknown men will be photographed in different clothing styles, which randomly assigned groups of respondents will evaluate on the basis of six leadership traits. What will be analysed is if indeed the men in suits with ties are statistically significant more positively evaluated on the six leadership traits compared to, for example, men in jeans and a casual sweater. By testing four hypotheses, an answer to the research question can be given and the implications of the results will be discussed. This analysis distinguishes between the assessment by men and by women, by different age groups and by clothing style of respondents themselves. In a first step to discover the influence of clothing on the evaluation of Dutch politicians and voting behaviour, this study focuses only on male politicians, mainly because men still dominate among party leaders in national parliamentary elections. What seems to come out of the questionnaires overall, is the fact that it depends on the person what he has to wear. Faces are more important when evaluating unknown persons in pictures. Clothing style can in some way increase or decrease the evaluation scores of some traits, but no clear relationship is to be found between certain traits and a specific clothing style. Politicians’ clothing can reinforce certain leadership traits in the eyes of voters, however, it differs between politicians which clothing style enhances which leadership traits. In general, an in-between clothing style yields the most positive responses and the most votes. But when looking independently at each trait, quite different evaluations appear between different persons. Some small changes in methodology and recruitment of respondents will make the findings of further research stronger. In further research, women definitely have to be included as stimuli persons and possibly political attitude also.Show less
