Politicians and Trustworthiness: Acting Contrary to Self-Interest Enhances Trustworthiness

Abstract

Trustworthiness is an important characteristic for politicians to possess. However, politicians are perceived as manifestly untrustworthy. One way politicians might build trustworthiness is to behave in a manner that seems contrary to self-interest. Three studies examined whether acting contrary to self-interest can help build trustworthiness. In each study, participants reacted to political content in which a politician acted contrary to self-interest (praised an opponent) or acted in a more common and self-serving manner (e.g., attacked opponent or praised the self). Participants perceived the candidate who acted contrary to self-interest as more trustworthy than candidates who acted in a more self-serving manner. Participants were also more willing to consider voting for such a candidate. These results were not constrained by party affiliation.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This project is greatly improved because of the contributions of several other people. The authors would like to thank Richard Smith for his insightful comments on our methodology and research design. We would also like to thank Sarai Blincoe, Ryan Schurtz, and Lyla Combs for helpful comments and critical proofreading of earlier drafts. Finally, we would like to thank Victor Ottati and several anonymous reviewers for their critical eye and helpful suggestions.

Notes

¹The morals variant was based on an ad made somewhat famous by U.S. senator Russ Feingold (see Ansolabehere & Iyengar, 1995, pp. 119–120, for the full text of the “salt” ads). The ad was adjusted for length, for content, and to fit the praise-self and praise-opponent conditions.

Note. DV = dependent variable.

Note. DV = dependent variable.

²That is, the praise opponent variable was entered as the independent variable, the praise-self and party similarity variables were entered as covariates, positive expectancy violation was entered as the mediator, and trustworthiness was the dependent variable.

³That is, the praise opponent dummy variable was entered as the independent variable, the counterattack dummy variable and party similarity variable were entered as covariates, the positive expectancy violations was entered as the mediator, and trustworthiness was entered as the dependent variable.

Note. DV = dependent variable.