FUNK 1996 The impact of scandal on candidate evaluations experiment

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Political Behavior, VoL 18, No. 1, 1996 
THE IMPACT OF SCANDAL ON CANDIDATE 
EVALUATIONS: An Experimental Test of the 
Role of Candidate Traits 
Carolyn L. Funk 
Correlational studies have found candidate traits to be an important determinant of 
vote preferences but cannot rule out reverse causality processes in explaining these 
findings. The present study demonstrates the independent impact of trait inferences 
on candidate evaluations using experimentally controlled candidate proFdes of hypo- 
thetical U.S. congressmen. Using the scandal situation as a testing ground, this exper- 
iment examines whether task-relevant, competence traits actually have greater im- 
pact on political judgments than the more general, warmth-related trait qualities. 
Two types of scandals are considered (marital infidelity and tax evasion), both imply- 
hag negative trustworthiness characteristics of the officeholder. Results demonstrate 
that trait inferences do have a causal impact on global evaluations. Consistent with 
past survey studies, competence qualities appear to be more important than warmth 
qualities but only for those with greater political information levels. 
Along with the rise in candidate-centered voting has come a renewed inter- 
est in candidate images. Candidate images are formed on the basis of the 
same kinds of information used to evaluate all sorts of persons. One of the 
most basic content categories of these images consists of trait inferences 
about the candidate. Once formed, trait judgments about others tend to last 
in memory long after the details on which they were based have been forgot- 
ten. Snippets of behavior such as Ed Muskie's tears in 1972 or Richard 
Nixon's sweaty brow during the 1960 debates lead to specific and lasting im- 
pressions about the trait qualities of politicians. It is particularly important, 
then, to examine the implications of these trait judgments for candidate eval- 
uations. 
Candidate characteristics were first treated as an important determinant of 
voting preferences in the works by Campbell and his colleagues (Campbell, 
Gurin, and Miller, 1954; Campbell et al., 1960). The candidate factor, how- 
Department of Political Science, Rice University, P.O. Box 1892, Houston, TX 77251. 
0190-9320/96/0300-0(}01509.50/0 @ 1996 Plenum Publishing Corporation 
2 FUNK 
ever, was given relatively little attention in the voting literature at first. Atten- 
tion was focused on more normative bases for evaluation such as ideological 
or issue distance from the candidate. Vote preferences based on candidate 
characteristics were considered superficial, inappropriate, and less "rational" 
than issue-based voting. Since then, more recognition has been given to the 
idea that preferences based on candidate characteristics are not necessarily 
any less rational than issue or party-based voting. And perhaps more impor- 
tantly, the weakening of partisan ties coupled with the increased reliance on 
primaries in the presidential nomination process helped spark greater interest 
in the role of candidates in the voting literature. Perceived candidate traits 
have proven to be an important link in models of global evaluations or vote 
preference (e.g., Markus, 1982; Rahn et al., 1990). While most of this litera- 
ture has concerned presidential candidates, candidate characteristics are 
proving important in the congressional voting literature as well as in evalua- 
tions of party leaders in parliamentary systems. 
Survey research helped establish the importance of trait judgments in 
global candidate evaluations. While these correlational studies have been sug- 
gestive, they cannot provide conclusive evidence of a causal role for trait 
judgments on candidate evaluations. Markus (1982) suggests strong reciprocal 
relations between judgments of candidate traits and global evaluations of 
presidential candidates. He finds that changes in perceived candidate compe- 
tence, for example, are best predicted by changes in overall evaluations of the 
candidate. Only controlled comparisons of politicians can fully address 
whether trait inferences have a causal'role in global evaluations. There are no 
real world politicians where one can be equally certain that summary evalua- 
tions are not driving trait judgments or even of the basic content of those trait 
judgments. The present study uses experimental methods to demonstrate that 
inferences made about a candidate's trait qualities have a causal impact on 
global evaluations of the candidate. 
Politicians involved in personal scandal provide a useful context in which to 
study the role of candidate traits. The term scandal is used here as a short- 
hand for publicized behaviors by a politician that are in conflict with society's 
moral standards. In a scandal situation, these behaviors, disseminated through 
the media, constitute negative integrity information about the politician. 
Scandals, then, have clear trait implications for the politicians involved in 
them. 
Abramowitz (1988, 1991) has found a significant negative impact of scandal 
on the electoral margins of House incumbents. Whether citizen reactions play 
a direct role in this outcome is not clear, It is possible that elite factors such 
as the presence of strong challengers and voluntary retirements explain the 
electoral connection with scandal rather than voter reactions. Only an experi- 
mental comparison will allow us to adequately address how voters take ac- 
count of scandal in their evaluations of political officeholders. 
SCANDAL AND CANDIDATE EVALUATIONS 3 
The present study addresses the relative importance of specific trait dimen- 
sions in candidate images and mimics the dynamic process that occurs as 
sequential pieces of information are integrated into global evaluations. In this 
paper, I first review the literature on the content of candidate trait judgments 
and the impact of scandal on candidate evaluations. I then describe the 
method and results of an experimental analog of the scandal situation. 
CANDIDATE TRAITS 
Information about a candidate's traits comes from many sources. People 
are quick to infer traits from even minimal information about others; clues 
about a person's trait qualities are taken from such things as physical appear- 
ance, verbal and nonverbal behaviors, group membership such as sex, race, 
geographic origin, and partisan affiliations. Even ideological and issue-posi- 
tion information can serve as a basis for trait judgments about politicians. 
News coverage of political candidates often includes direct information on 
personal qualities as well. 
Trait Judgments About Politicians 
The kinds of trait judgments made about politicians seem to be, at least 
partially, focused around traits relevant to their roles as public representa- 
tives. Trait assessments about political figures tend to fall in one of three 
separable dimensions: competence, integrity, and warmth qualities (see Funk, 
forthcoming). Both the competence and integrity dimensions have a clear 
relationship to the role responsibilities of public officials. 
Competence and integrity or trustworthiness qualities are often reported to 
be especially important in our evaluations of political figures (Kinder, 1983, 
1986; Kinder et al., 1980; Page, 1978; Miller and Miller, 1976; Miller, Watten- 
berg, and Malanchuk, 1986; Rahn et al., 1990). Fenno (1978) finds that 
House incumbents make a particular effort to portray themselves as compe- 
tent and trustworthy to their constituents. Reports from NES surveys on rea- 
sons for liking and disliking presidential candidates frequently mention both 
competence-related and integrity qualities. Trait ratings of presidential candi- 
dates have found both competence and integrity ratings to be important pre- 
dictors of overall evaluations. 
Warmth-related qualitiesare a primary basis for our evaluations of others, 
in general (e.g., Rosenberg and Sedlak, 1972; Rubin, 1973). Self-reports of 
candidate evaluations, though, only rarely mention warmth qualities as impor- 
tant in evaluating politicians (Kinder et al., 1980; Miller, Wattenberg, and 
Malanchuk, 1986). It may be that warmth qualities are just as important as 
other candidate traits but are less likely to be reported as important in public 
opinion surveys due to social desirability concerns. Political campaigns and 
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advertisements do make an effort to portray politicians as warm, sociable, and 
empathic with the concerns of the citizens. 
All three trait dimensions seem to be important and separable dimensions 
in candidate evaluations. The present study tests whether either warmth qual- 
ities or competence qualities are given differential weight in overall evalua- 
tions when trustworthiness of the candidate is low. If either trait dimension is 
particularly important in citizen evaluations of politicians, then positive trait 
inferences on that dimension should serve as a buffer against the negative 
impact of scandal. 
The Impact of Scandal 
There are a variety of factors that may be important in actual scandal situa- 
tions but cannot be considered here. Some of the important determinants of 
public reaction after a scandal include partisan biases and preexisting prefer- 
ences for political figures, whether the political Context encourages single or 
comparative judgments, reactions by the politician as well as those by other 
political leaders, the quantity, tone, and content of media coverage about the 
scandal, in particular, and the politician, in general. 
This study looks at two specific types of scandalous behavior: marital infi- 
delity and tax evasion. Both situations are framed in terms of their implica- 
tions for the trustworthiness of the officeholder. While martial infidelity and 
tax evasion situations differ in several ways, they both involve the of- 
ficeholder's personal rather than professional behaviors. The political fortunes 
of those involved in personal scandals have sometimes emerged relatively 
unscathed whereas other times they have been irreparably damaged. In scan- 
dals directly related to the professional role of the officeholder, such as ex- 
changing votes for money, the negative reaction of the public is more clear 
and uniform 1 (Peters and Welch, 1978). 
Past research has found a significant impact of scandal on electoral margins 
(Abramowitz, 1988, 1991; Peters and Welch, 1980; Stoker, 1993). Several 
studies on the electoral impact of check overdrafts by House members have 
also found that incumbents associated with scandal are more likely to retire 
from public office (Alford et al., 1994; Groseclose and Krehbiel, 1994; Jacob- 
son and Dimock, 1993). 
Little research has been done to explain why some politicians seem to be 
irreparably harmed by scandal whereas others seem able to bounce back rela- 
tively unscathed. A study by Rundquist, Strom, and Peters (1977) found evi- 
dence in a hypothetical campaign context that information about policy opin- 
ions can outweigh corruption information about an initially preferred 
candidate. In this case, the policy position of the candidate related to support 
for Nixon's Vietnamization policy. Those subjects with strong feelings on this 
SCANDAL AND CANDIDATE EVALUATIONS 5 
issue were more likely to continue support for a corrupt candidate with a 
preferred position on this issue than were individuals with less intense posi- 
tions on this issue. 
Stokers (1993) analysis of change in public opinion toward Gary Hart, be- 
fore and after his relations with Donna Rice became widely known, demon- 
strated that the negative effects of scandal can be moderated by policy con- 
cerus. Negative reactions to Hart after the scandal were muted for issue 
voters, in general, and for those who based more of their initial support for 
Hart on policy criteria. 
Both correlational and experimental studies have demonstrated that reac- 
tion to politicians involved in scandal is negative. Reaction is not uniformly 
negative, however. Past studies suggest that other information about an of- 
ficeholder can offset the impact of negative trustworthiness information. No 
direct explorations have been done to test the role of trait inferences in this 
process. The present study tests whether judgments of candidate character on 
dimensions other than trustworthiness might moderate the negative impact of 
scandal. 
Given the importance of warmth-related qualities in general person per- 
ception, it seems likely that warmth is also important in citizen evaluations of 
politicians. Whether survey respondents indicate warmth qualities as impor- 
tant or not, the public seems to respond favorably to charismatic politicians. 
One interpretation of Ronald Reagan's popularity despite numerous gaffes 
focused on his charisma as the "great communicator" (Weisman, 1984). Simi- 
lar arguments have been offered to explain Bill Clinton's success despite clear 
reservations about his trustworthiness. It is plausible, then, that candidate 
warmth might serve to offset the negative integrity information implied by 
news of a scandal. 
Normative prescriptions for evaluating political officeholders, on the other 
hand, ask that citizens evaluate politicians according to competence criteria 
(see Page, 1978; Popkin, 1991). Public representatives to government need to 
be more than just warm, likable people. They especially need to show that 
they are qualified for the job, perform the job well, and make decisions in the 
public interest. As reported above, correlational studies and self-reports sug- 
gest that competence qualities are particularly important in predicting candi- 
date evaluations and vote choice. A content analysis of expert opinions about 
congressional incumbents suggests that officeholders considered to be highly 
competent are more likely to win reelection than those judged to be less 
competent (Mondak, 1994). 
The bulk of the evidence suggests that competence qualities are more im- 
portant than warmth qualities in candidate evaluations. Consequently, the 
negative impact of personal scandal should be buffered for candidates who 
are high in competence qualities compared to those high in warmth qualities. 
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Past research based on correlational evidence cannot rule out the reciprocal 
influences on trait judgments from overall evaluations. Some experimental 
evidence has shown, for example, that perceived effectiveness as a leader 
depends on agreement with the candidate's issue stands (Wyer et aL, 1991). 
The present study is the first of its kind to test whether there is a direct 
causal relationship between judgments of candidate traits and overall evalua- 
tions. 
Political Information Differences in Candidate Evaluations 
Individual differences in political information constitute one of the most 
important mediators of political attitudes ~ (see e.g., Krosnick, 1990; Zaller, 
1992). Those with more political information are likely to differ from the less 
informed in a host of ways. Differences in amount of political knowledge has 
been found to predict exposure and attitude change to new information. 
Stoker (1993), for example, finds evidence of defensive reactions in the wake 
of the scandal surrounding Gary Hart among Democrats, while Republicans 
expressed strong negative reactions to Hart. Further, the defensive reactions 
among Democrats were stronger for those who knew more about politics. 
These findings highlight the importance of partisan reactions in many ac- 
tual scandal situations, especially as partisanship interacts with levels of politi- 
cal information. Party affiliation, alone, does not appear to be enough to out- 
weigh the negativeimpact of scandals, however (Markus, 1982; Rundquist, 
Strom, and Peters, 1977). The present study examined reactions to a scandal 
situation after controlling for partisan biases and prior opinion. Partisan reac- 
tions to politicians involved in scandal are expected to be important but pre- 
dictable, with defensive reactions from fellow partisans, especially more in- 
formed partisans, and negative reactions from others. 
The scandal situation studied here exposes both the more and less knowl- 
edgeable to the exact same information about an officeholder. This situation 
highlights any differences in the way information about politicians is pro- 
cessed rather than differences in seeking out and paying attention to political 
information. Research to date suggests that more politically informed citizens 
have a greater ability to incorporate complex political information into their 
knowledge structures (see Hamill and Lodge, 1986; Fiske, Kinder, and Larter, 
1983; Fiske, Lau, and Smith, 1990; Judd and Downing, 1990; McGraw and 
Pinney, 1990; Rahn, Aldrich, and Borgida, 1994). This cognitive complexity 
allows for both greater differentiation of distinct pieces of information and 
greater integration of the pieces with ideological or schematic concepts. 
This ability to integrate complexities may make the more knowledgeable 
better able to differentiate between information that is more and less impor- 
tant in their evaluations. For example, if competence qualities are more ira- 
SCANDAL AND CANDIDATE EVALUATIONS 7 
portant in evaluations of officeholders than other qualities, those higher in 
political information levels may be more likely to discount the negative scan- 
dal information in cases where the political figure is also highly competent. 
While scandal is likely to be important to all, the impact of scandal is more 
likely to be buffered by competence for those with more information than for 
those less informed due to their relative abilities to differentiate between 
different sorts of information in their evaluations. 
Another possibility is that those with more political information use differ- 
ent criteria in evaluating politicians. There is limited evidence that more 19o - 
litically informed citizens may be more aware of the civic norms associated 
with political judgments and, therefore, more likely to place greater impor- 
tance on competence qualities when evaluating politicians. A handful of 
studies have found relationships between concepts related to political infor- 
mation, such as education and political interest levels, to be associated with 
greater importance of competence qualities and civic norms (Conover, Sear- 
ing, and Zinni, 1988; Kinder et al., 1980; Miller, Wattenberg, and Malanchuk, 
1986; Wilson and Banfield, 1964, 1971). However, Pierce (1994) found that 
the determinants of overall candidate evaluations were no different for politi- 
cal sophisticates than for those lower in sophistication. Similarly, Glass's anal- 
ysis (1985) of NES data from 1952 to 1984 found little indication that the 
college educated used different criteria in evaluating presidential candidates 
than those with less education. 
It seems more likely, then, that differences in political information lead to 
more developed political schemata and a more general political expertise that 
allows for more complex processing of information rather than different crite- 
ria for candidate evaluations, per se. Those with more political information 
should be better able to integrate scandal information into their prior impres- 
sions of the politician. If competence qualities are more important in candi- 
date evaluations than warmth qualities, then those higher in political informa- 
tion should be especially likely to discount the negative integrity information 
for politicians who are otherwise competent. 
METHOD 
Subjects 
A total of 86 undergraduate students (42 male, 44 female) from the Univer- 
sity of California, Los Angeles, served as subjects. 3 All were enrolled in an 
introductory psychology course and received course credit for their participa- 
tion. College students are a rather special group of citizens; they have only 
limited experience in evaluating and voting for politicians. While college stu- 
dents tend to have weaker partisan attachments than older adults, there is no 
8 FUNK 
evidence to suggest that college students follow fundamentally different pro- 
cesses than older Americans in evaluating political figures. College student 
subjects seem appropriate, then, for an initial exploration into the role of trait 
inferences on evaluations of politicians involved in scandal. 
Design and Hypotheses 
Previous studies on candidate images have mostly been conducted in a 
survey setting, using cross-sectional data. Social desirability pressures inher- 
ent to the survey setting may make it difficult for people to volunteer the 
importance of personal characteristics and traits in their evaluations of politi- 
cal figures. The very norms that encourage people to evaluate politicians in 
terms of their competence qualities may inhibit them from talking about the 
influence of a charismatic or warm personality during a survey interview. In 
order to give both the warmth-based and the competence-based hypotheses a 
reasonable chance at explaining attenuated negative reaction to scandal, it 
was important to begin with a controlled experiment. 
The basic experiment was a partial factorial using a 2 Trait Configuration 
• 2 Scandal Presence • 2 Scandal Type mixed-subjects analysis of variance 
design. 4 The first independent variable, trait configuration, consisted of two 
conditions: a highly warm but not very competent condition and a highly 
competent but not very warm condition. This combination of competence 
and warmth information was used in order to reduce halo effects that occur if 
positive information is available on a single dimension; by specifying negative 
traits in another dimension, the stimulus materials better isolate the traits of 
interest in each condition. ~ 
By focusing on combinations of positive and negative traits, the design 
omits the possibility of politicians who are both highly warm and highly com- 
petent as well as those who are not very warm and not very competent. The 
reasoning here is that the full factorial of trait combinations would provide 
little information about the relative ability of competence or warmth to buffer 
the negative impact of scandal information. Politicians with positive qualities 
on both dimensions are expected to be preferred to those with a mix of 
positive and negative qualities. And by the same token, politicians with nega- 
tive qualities on both dimensions are expected to be least preferable com- 
pared to those with a mix of positive and negative qualities or with positive 
qualities on both dimensions. 
The second independent variable, scandal presence, refers to the either 
negative valence scandal present information or the neutral valence scandal 
absent information. The third independent variable, scandal type, was an in- 
ternal replication of the integrity-related information, with two alternate sce- 
narios of the scandal present information (marital infidelity and tax evasion) 
SCANDAL AND CANDIDATE EVALUATIONS 9 
Marital Imqdelitv Tax Evasion 
Scandal No Scandal Scandal No Scandal 
Warm + not competent l low I hlgh I I low I hlgh I 
FIG. 1. Design and hypotheses for overall evaluations. 
and two alternate scenarios of the scandal absent information (real estate 
investment and shopping). 
A diagram of the design and main hypotheses can be found in Figure 1. 
The entries refer to the level of overall evaluation of the politician, from very 
positive (high) to quite negative (low). While politicians involved in a scandal 
are expectedto be evaluated more negatively than those not in a scandal, trait 
configuration is expected to interact with scandal presence such that compe- 
tent politicians involved in scandal are expected to be evaluated less nega- 
tively than warm politicians involved in scandal. No differences in impact 
between versions of the scandal information are hypothesized. It should be 
borne in mind, however, that the two different versions of the scandal present 
condition were expected to vary in strength as well as in the nature of the 
scandal. The results of a pilot experiment suggested that the tax evasion scan- 
dal was more negative than the marital infidelity scandal. The two scandal 
absent conditions were more comparable. This difference in reaction to the 
two types of scandal is not limited to college student populations. A CBS/New 
York Times poll conducted January 17-21, 1988, found that 80 percent of 
registered voters considered cheating on taxes to be something the public was 
entitled to know about a presidential candidate, while only 9-8 percent 
thought having been unfaithful to his wife was something the public was 
entitled to know. 
Materials 
Instructions 
Written instructions informed subjects that they would be reading about 
several hypothetical U.S. congressmen from California and asked to form an 
impression of each. The instructions stressed the importance of forming an 
overall impression rather than memorizing the material presented. Subjects 
were not allowed to look back at the written descriptions when filling out 
their evaluations of each congressman. 
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Stimulus Materials 
Each of four politicians was initially described by a paragraph of political 
background information and three additional paragraphs of warmth and com- 
petence-related information. These descriptions were presented in a news- 
paper column format and resembled a profile article. The format and length 
of these descriptions aimed to establish the context of political evaluation in a 
rich and realistic fashion within the limitations of the methodology. While 
specific details vary in each description, the chief experimental manipulation 
is found in the trait terms used to describe each politician. The trait-related 
information described what political colleagues thought of the congressman 
in trait terms and gave some examples of his actions related to the trait infor- 
mation. As noted above, two of the vignettes portrayed a highly warm but not 
very competent officeholder and two vignettes portrayed a highly competent 
but not very warm officeholder (see Appendix A). 
The political background information suggested a moderately liberal politi- 
cian in terms of issue interests in each case; no party affiliation information 
was provided, however. This provides an experimental control for partisan 
reactions to politicians. Each version of political background information was 
pilot tested for equivalence in evaluative implications and in any partisan 
cues; each politician was as likely to be perceived as a Democrat as a Republi- 
can. 
The scandal information vignettes described a congressman in one of four 
situations. One politician was described as currently involved in a marital 
infidelity situation and another was involved in a tax evasion situation; these 
politicians represented the two versions of negative integrity, or scandal pres- 
ent, information. Two other politicians were depicted in the neutral integrity, 
or scandal absent, conditions; one was seen on a shopping outing with his 
wife and the other was described by some recent real estate investments he 
had made. Each of these four conditions was portrayed in a single paragraph 
of information that was presented in a newspaper column format with a sub- 
heading of IN THE NEWS. 
It should be noted that each manipulation embedded in these materials 
was pilot tested in a separate series of experiments. The order of the experi- 
mental conditions was counterbalanced using a Latin-square design. 6 
Measures 
After each description of a politician, there was a series of questions about 
that politician. These included 7-point bipolar ratings on competence, 
warmth, and trustworthiness traits, perceived party affiliation, likelihood of 
voting for, general favorability, and affective reactions toward the congress- 
SCANDAL AND CANDIDATE EVALUATIONS I 1 
man. After each of the four politicians was evaluated, subjects completed a 
background questionnaire. These questions included items on the perceived 
morality of marital infidelity and tax evasion in general, as well as demo- 
graphic and party affiliation information about the subject. In addition, there 
was a series of items on knowledge of state and national politics. 
Impression Crystallization 
After the initial trait and background information was presented, subjects 
were asked to list five things that came to mind when they thought about that 
politician. This task helped establish positive impressions on the basis of the 
trait information prior to encountering the more negative scandal informa- 
tion. 
Procedure 
Prior to evaluating the individual congressmen vignettes, subjects rated the 
warmth, competence, and trustworthiness traits of a typical U.S. congress- 
man. These ratings served to set the stage for the trait descriptions of the 
individual congressman against the backdrop of the typical ease. After the 
typical congressman ratings were completed, the experimental materials were 
randomly distributed to the subjects. The experimenter read the written in- 
structions aloud. Subjects then completed the materials at their own pace. 
These materials first presented the initial background and trait information 
about a congressman. In order to crystallize initial attitudes, subjects then 
listed five things that came to mind when thinking about that congressman. 
Subjects then read the scandal present or absent information. Next, subjects 
rated the congressman on the trait scales and dependent measures. After all 
four politicians had been presented and rated, subjects completed the back- 
ground questionnaire. 
RESULTS 
The results are presented for the sample as a whole and then by differ- 
ences in political knowledge levels. First, while the impact of a scandal rela- 
tive to no scandal was clearly negative, consistent differences in the impact of 
the two versions of the scandal information were found. Politicians involved 
in the tax evasion scandal were evaluated more negatively than those in the 
marital infidelity scandal (as had been expected on the basis of pilot study 
results and public opinion surveys). Second, the highly competent but not 
very warm politicians were evaluated more favorably, on average, than the 
highly warm but not very competent conditions. This provides support for the 
12 FUNK 
hypothesis that competence qualities are more important than warmth quali- 
fies in our evaluations of political figures and does not appear to be solely a 
product of the experimental manipulations. Third, while competence qualities 
did not attenuate the impact of scandal in general, some support for the 
competence attenuation hypothesis did emerge among the more politically 
informed subjects. Those higher in political knowledge appeared to discount 
the marital infidelity information for the highly competent politicians but not 
for the highly warm politicians. Those low in political knowledge rated both 
the highly warm and the highly competent politicians in the marital infidelity 
scandal more negatively than the no scandal comparisons. 
Overall Evaluations 
The results of a 2 Trait Configuration • 2 Scandal Presence • 2 Scandal 
Version repeated measures MANOVA indicated, first, a significant main ef- 
fect for scandal presence. The dependent measure was an overall evaluationindex where a high score indicated more favorable evaluations. The index 
averaged two 7-point bipolar ratings of likely vote and favorable impression 
(average alpha = .87). Collapsing across all trait conditions and scandal ver- 
sions, politicians associated with a scandal were evaluated more negatively 
than were those connected with a more neutral situation (F (1, 83) = 128.25, 
p < .0001). 7 As seen in Table 1, the mean overall evaluation for scandal 
present conditions was 3.4 while the mean rating for scandal absent condi- 
tions was 4.8. This finding is consistent with the intended manipulations of 
scandal present and absent conditions as well as with expectations about the 
negative impact of scandal information. 
Second, there was a significant main effect of trait configuration. Averaging 
across all scandal conditions, the high competence politicians were rated 
more favorably than the high warmth politicians (F (1, 83) = 9.70, p < .01). 
Those depicted as highly competent but not very warm had a mean overall 
rating of 4.4 compared to 3.8 for the politicians high in warmth but not very 
TABLE 1. Mean Overall Evaluation by Scandal Presence and 
Trait Configuration 
Scandal No Scandal Difference Average 
Warm + not competent 3.2 4.5 -1.3 3.8 
Competent + not warm 3.6 5.2 - 1.6 4.4 
Average 3.4 4.8 - 1.4 
Note: A high score indicates more favorable evaluations; N = 86. 
SCANDAL AND CANDIDATE EVALUATIONS 13 
competent (see Table 1). This finding is consistent with the results of pilot 
experiments where, in the absence of any scandal-related information, highly 
competent politicians were rated more favorably than highly warm ones. 
These findings lend support to the notion that competence qualities, in gen- 
eral, are more important in our evaluations of political figures than are 
warmth ones. 
Third, there was a significant three-way interaction indicating that the tax 
evasion scandal had a stronger negative impact than the marital infidelity 
scandal (F (1, 83) = 18.61, p < .0001). The mean overall evaluation for the 
eight trait configuration by scandal (presence and version) conditions can be 
seen in Table 2. The impact of the marital infidelity scandal was negative, but 
the impact of the tax evasion scandal was even more strongly negative (.8 
lower for marital infidelity and 2.0 lower for tax evasion than a no scandal 
comparison). This finding is also consistent with the results of a pilot experi- 
ment where evaluations of politicians involved in the tax evasion situation 
were more negative than for those involved in a marital infidelity situation in 
the absence of any other information. 
These results show an asymmetrical impact of the two scandals, with politi- 
cians involved in the tax evasion scandal evaluated more negatively than those 
in the marital infidelity scandal. While the main effect favoring competent 
politicians over warm ones supports the competence-based attenuation hy- 
pothesis, no additional interaction effect between trait and scandal presence 
is evident here. Politicians in the martial infidelity scandal were evaluated 
more negatively compared to a no scandal situation regardless of the trait 
basis for their impressions (.8 lower for both warmth and competence condi- 
tions). Similarly, politicians in a tax evasion scandal were evaluated more neg- 
atively compared to a no scandal situation regardless of the trait basis for 
their impressions (on average, 2.0 lower). 
TABLE 2. Mean Overall Evaluation by Scandal Presence, Scandal Version, and 
Trait Configuration 
Marital Infidelity Tax Evasion 
Scandal 
No No 
Scandal Difference Scandal Scandal Difference 
(Real Estate) (Shopping) 
Warm + not competent 3.5 4.3 - .8 3.0 4.7 -1.7 
Competent + not warm 4.2 5.0 - .8 3.0 5.4 -2.4 
Average 3.8 4.6 - .8 3.0 5.0 - 2.0 
Note: A high score indicates more favorable evaluations; N = 86. 
14 FUNK 
Manipulation Checks on Warmth vs. Competence 
The main effect showing high competence politicians to be evaluated more 
favorably than high warmth politicians could be the result of weaker manipu- 
lations of the high warmth relative to the high competence politicians. How- 
ever, four-item ratings on warmth 8 and competence 9 traits indicated that the 
warmth manipulations were actually somewhat stronger than the competence 
manipulations. While both competence and warmth ratings showed differen- 
tiation in the direction of the intended manipulations, the trait configuration 
conditions were farther apart on warmth ratings than they were on compe- 
tence ratings: 
Averaging across all scandal conditions, the mean warmth rating for the 
high warmth configurations was 5.9 compared to 3.5 for the high competence 
configurations. This represents a significant main effect of trait configuration 
on the warmth index (F (1, 84) = 564.66, p < .0001). The mean competence 
rating for the high warmth configurations was 4.3 compared to 5.3 for the 
high competence configurations. The main effect of trait configuration on the 
competence index was also significant (F (1, 84) = 65.09, p < .0001). Both 
the warmth and the competence ratings showed significant main effects of 
the trait condition in the intended directions, then, but these effects were 
stronger on the warmth ratings than on the competence ratings. These results 
are shown in Table 3. So it seems unlikely that higher overall evaluations for 
competent politicians were merely an artifact of the strength of the experi- 
mental manipulations. 
Nor was there a differential association of particular trait configurations 
with either a Democratic or Republican party affiliation. A one-item rating of 
likely party affiliation for each politician showed no significant differences by 
trait condition. 
TABLE 3. Mean Trait Evaluations by Scandal Presence and 
Trait Configuration 
Warmth Index Competence Index 
No No 
Scandal Scandal Average Scandal Scandal Average 
Warm + not competent 5.7 6.1 5.9 4.0 4.5 4.3 
Competent + not warm 3.3 3.8 3.5 4.9 5.7 5.3 
Difference 2.4 2.3 2.4 0.9 1.2 1.0 
Note: A high score indicates greater warmth or competence; N = 86. 
SCANDAL AND CANDIDATE EVALUATIONS 15 
Manipulation Checks on the Effect of Scandal 
The scandal information had a clear impact on perceived trustworthiness, 
consistent with the intended manipulations. There was a significant main ef- 
fect of scandal on a four-item index of trustworthiness ~I (p < .0001). The 
presence of the scandal information also affected emotional reactions to the 
officeholders in a manner consistent with overall evaluations. Self-reports of 
positive affective reactions, consisting of a two-item index of admiration and 
respect (average alpha = .89), showed a significant main effect of scandal (p 
< .0001) as did reports of negative affect, consisting of a two-item index of 
reported anger and disgust (average alpha = .82, p < .0001). The tax evasion 
scandal led to stronger negative reactions across all of these measures. 
Political Knowledge Differences 
The pattern of overall results changes when analyzed by a median split into 
groups with higher and lower levels of political knowledge. Political knowl- 
edge was measured by summing correct responses to 21 items reflecting gen- 
eral political knowledge (alpha = .88). 
The mean overall evaluations in Table 4 show that competence attenuated 
the negative effects of scandal under limited conditions. For those high in 
political knowledge, evaluations of highly competent politicians were not af- 
fected by the marital infidelity scandal (mean ratings were 4.8 for both scan- 
dal and no scandal conditions). However, evaluations of highly warm politi- 
cians were significantly damaged by involvement in the marital infidelity 
scandal (mean 8.5, scandal vs. 4.5, no scandal). The four-way interactionbe- 
tween trait configuration, scandal presence, scandal version, and knowledge 
showed a trend toward significance (F (1, 81) = 2.34, p < .13). '~ While this 
evidence is not as strong as desired, we will see below that it is bolstered by 
findings on measures of trustworthiness and felt sympathy that follow the 
same pattern and reach statistical significance levels. 
For those low in political knowledge, the marital infidelity scandal was 
damaging to either kind of politician. The highly competent politicians were 
evaluated significantly more negatively if they were involved in the marital 
infidelity scandal compared to those not in a scandal (8.6 vs. 5.2). Highly 
warm politicians were also hurt by the marital infidelity scandal (3.4 vs. 4.1), 
although this difference was not statistically significant (p < .16). 
It is important to note that the marital infidelity information was not simply 
considered less important by the high knowledge group. If this had been the 
ease, the unfaithful warm politicians should have been regarded as favorably 
by the high knowledge group as politicians in the no scandal and the compe- 
tent but unfaithful conditions. This finding is corroborated by a general rating 
16 FUNK 
TABLE 4. Mean Overall Evaluation by Scandal Type and Trait Configuration as a 
Function of Political Knowledge 
High Political Knowledge (n = 44) 
Marital Infidelity Tax Evasion 
No No 
Scandal Scandal Difference Scandal Scandal Difference 
(Real Estate) (Shopping) 
Warm + not competent 3.5 4.5 - 1.0 2.9 4.5 
Competent + not warm 4.8 4.8 0 2.9 5.6 
-1.6 
-2.7 
Low Political Knowledge (n = 41) 
Marital Infidelity Tax Evasion 
No No 
Scandal Scandal Difference Scandal Scandal Difference 
(Real Estate) (Shopping) 
Warm + not competent 3.4 4.1 - .7 3.0 5.0 -2.0 
Competent + not warm 3.6 5.2 - 1.6 3.1 5,1 -2.0 
Note: A high score indicates more favorable evaluations; n ranges from 20 to 23 per cell. 
of the immorality of marital infidelity; both knowledge groups considered 
marital infidelity to be equally and highly immoral. 
Evaluations of the politicians involved in the tax evasion scandal were sig- 
nificantly more negative than those not in a scandal regardless of the trait 
configuration condition or level of political knowledge. 
These results support past findings suggesting that political knowledge is 
associated with greater cognitive complexity to process political information 
rather than different criteria for candidate evaluation. There was no evidence 
that the criteria for evaluation differed by knowledge level. For both groups, 
the best predictors of overall evaluations were ratings of candidate trust- 
worthiness and competence. 
Correlations of Knowledge and Overall Evaluations 
The correlation coefficients between knowledge level, measured by the to- 
tal number of items answered correctly, and the two-item overall evaluation 
index underscore the unique pattern of evaluations for the competent but 
unfaithful politician compared to the other politician conditions. Those with 
greater political knowledge were more likely to hold favorable evaluations of 
SCANDAL AND CANDIDATE EVALUATIONS 17 
the competent politician in the marital infidelity scandal (r = .43, p < .01). 
In no other condition was the association between knowledge and overall 
evaluations significant. 
Evidence of Discounting 
Clearer differences between the high and low knowledge groups emerged 
on ratings of trust and sympathy. The four-way interaction was significant on a 
four-item index of trustworthiness (F (i, 81) = 4.80, p < .04) and on a one- 
item rating of felt sympathy (F (1,81) = 5.10, p < .03). Consistent with their 
overall evaluations, the more knowledgeable perceived the competent but 
untCaithful politicians as higher in trustworthiness and felt more sympathy to- 
ward them. The less knowledgeable did not differentiate between warm and 
competent politicians who were unfaithful; both evoked less sympathy and 
less trust than no scandal comparisons. 
Comparisons between higher knowledge and lower knowledge groups 
show that differential perceptions of warmth and competence per se were not 
responsible for the differences on overall evaluations. One crude indicator 
was provided by a content analysis of the thoughts listed after reading the 
initial trait information. Results showed no differences between knowledge 
groups in the type of comments made; both groups made comments consis- 
tent with the intended trait manipulations. In addition, both knowledge 
groups evaluated the politicians involved in the marital infidelity scandal sim- 
ilarly in terms of both their warmth and competence. Most importantly, the 
more negative overall evaluations of the competent politicians in the marital 
infidelity condition were not due to any perception of less warmth or of any 
less competence among the less knowledgeable. 
DISCUSSION 
The evaluation of political figures is a dynamic process. Once formed, first 
impressions have powerful effects on the interpretation of later information. 
Traits are an important part of a candidate's "characteristics"; much of our 
memory for other persons consists of judgments about their trait qualities. 
Consistent with the literature demonstrating on-line global evaluations of can- 
didates (e.g., Lodge, McGraw, and Stroh, 1989), trait inferences also tend to 
be made as relevant information is encountered (Carlston, 1980; Newman 
and Uleman, 1990; Sanbonmatsu, Sherman, and Hamilton, 1987; Wyer, Srull, 
and Gordon, 1984). Trait inferences, then, have important implications for 
the integration of later information into judgments of political figures. 
This experiment is the first of its kind to demonstrate that relationships 
between candidate traits and global evaluations found in past correlational 
18 FUNK 
studies are not due merely to rationalizations based on global evaluations of 
the candidates. Initial impressions of a politician's trait qualities led to signifi- 
cant differences in the impact of negative integrity information on global eval- 
uations. This suggests that initial trait impressions affected the interpretation 
of the later, negative information, leading to different outcomes in overall 
evaluations. 
The differences between those with greater and lesser political knowledge 
are consistent with past research showing that political experts are better able 
to integrate complex information. These findings strongly suggest that those 
higher in knowledge differentiated more than those lower in knowledge be- 
tween the scandal versions and the trait configuration information. Reactions 
by the less knowledgeable in this study seemed to be more strongly deter- 
mined by the valence of the information presented and showed fewer distinc- 
tions among the different kinds of information. These effects could be due to 
a greater motivation as well as a greater capacity to process the complex 
political information among those with more political knowledge. 
It is worth noting that the present study serves as a stringent test for differ- 
ences by political knowledge level. The college students in this sample were, 
in some cases, better informed than a nationally representative sample and 
always at least equally informed as a national sample (Delli Carpini and 
Keeter, 1991). So, the use of a college student sample in the present study 
may understate differences by political knowledge for a general population of 
subjects and at least provides a fairly stringent test of such differences. 
These results are compelling partly because they represent controlled com- 
parisons of politicians associated with different kinds of information. There 
are no real world scandals where one can identify with equal confidence the 
nature of initial impressions, forexample. By the same token, the applicability 
of these results may be suspect because they occurred with ratings of hypo- 
thetical politicians under artificial conditions. The experimental design re- 
mains one of our best tools for causal inference. Certainly, the generalizability 
of these results to opinion of actual politicians will need to be tested further, 
under a variety of conditions, and preferably with both ex~perimental and cor- 
relational data. 
It remains unclear how trait inferences based on party affiliation or demo- 
graphic characteristics interact with other trait-relevant information. A num- 
ber of trait inferences are made about female officeholders, for example, on 
the basis of gender stereotypes (Alexander and Andersen, 1993; Huddy and 
Terkildsen, 1993a, 1993b). There is some evidence that women candidates 
are considered to be more moral and honest in speaking out and standing up 
for what they believe. Such gender stereotypes may contribute to higher 
expectations of trustworthiness for female compared to male politicians. Scan- 
dals about female politicians might carry especially strong negative implica- 
tions because they diseonfirm prior expectations of greater integrity. Alter- 
SCANDAL AND CANDIDATE EVALUATIONS ]9 
natively, people might be especially willing to discount the scandal 
information if the female politicians are also considered highly competent 
because of these stereotyped assumptions of greater trustworthiness. 
CONCLUSIONS 
There are a number of issues to be addressed in further studies. These 
results suggest that people at least broadly follow civic norms in their judg- 
ments of politicians. It is not clear to what extent the public can or does make 
finer-grained distinctions between the different role responsibilities of execu- 
tive and legislative officeholders or national vs. state or local level of- 
ficeholders (see Huddy and Terkildsen, 1993a; Stein, 1990). Arthur Miller 
(1990) has compared public opinion of House and Senate members and ar- 
gued that evaluations of each tend to be based on different trait dimensions. 
It is also possible that different types of behaviors may contribute to images 
of competence appropriate to the substantive domain of the office while judg- 
ments of competence remain important for all. 
This study highlights the direct role of candidate traits in evaluations of 
politicians and suggests that perceptions of competence may help explain why 
some politicians are able to retain fairly high levels of public support after a 
personal scandal. Clinton appeared to emphasize competence rather than 
charisma with some success during the 1992 presidential campaign despite 
his involvement in a number of scandals. Clinton's campaign emphasized his 
ability to handle problems in the economy rather than his warm and charis- 
matic personality. 
Clinton's success overcoming the negative implications of scandal was 
greater during the primary phase of the election than the general election 
campaign. Primary election voters are likely to hold more political informa- 
tion than general election voters. Results of this study suggested that those 
with more political knowledge are better able to differentiate between differ- 
ent types of information; their opinions seem more likely to depend on the 
exact nature of the scandal and on prior impressions of the politician in- 
volved. Those with lower levels of political knowledge are likely to be more 
distracted by the media circus surrounding a scandal; their opinion seems 
more strongly determined by the valence of salient information about the 
politician. The negative trustworthiness implied by the scandal situation 
clearly impacted candidate evaluations for all; competence qualities seemed 
to be given more weight in overall evaluations by those with more political 
knowledge. Judgments of candidate traits play an important and direct role in 
candidate evaluations. 
Acknowledgments. The author gratefully acknowledges David Sears, Marilynn 
Brewer, Stanley Feldman, Eric Holman, Leonie Huddy, John Petrocik, Rick Wilson, 
20 FUNK 
and John Zaller for helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper. Thanks als0 to 
Victoria Ramlow for her help conducting the experiment. An earlier version of this 
paper was presented at the 1992 annual meeting of the Southern Political Science 
Assoeiation, Atlanta, GA. 
APPENDIX A: SAMPLE VIGNETrES PORTRAYING BACKGROUND 
INFORMATION AND TRAIT CONFIGURATIONS 
Example of High Warmth But Low Competence 
Brad Dixon started out as an educator. He was on the local school board for a 
number of years and then a member of the city council. Dixon's interest in community 
betterment has remained strong. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives 
in 1982. Dixon serves on the important joint House and Senate Committee on the 
Economy and the Subcommittee on Education. 
Brad Dixon's colleagues in the House describe him as friendly and good-natured. 
He is well liked among House members because of his good sense of humor and his 
easygoing style. Dixon's charismatic speaking style has also made him a favorite invited 
speaker at benefit dinners in and around Washington. Contributors at one recent 
fundraising dinner were lined up out the door to meet him. 
Dixon makes a special effort to help constituents who need assistance. In one recent 
case, a constituent called ,vith a problem getting Medicaid for her elderly aunt. Dixon 
was on the phone immediately to the social worker handling the ease. Within two days, 
the woman was able to receive the medical care she needed. In another ease, Dixon 
helped save a local community center from closing down due to zoning law changes. 
While Brad Dixon is admired for his ability to get along well with others, he is not 
seen as a particularly skillful legislator. He is not responsible for any major legislation 
in the last two sessions; he has cosponsored some minor bills on government regula- 
tions. 
Example of High Competence But Low Warmth 
Doug Ryan was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1984. He trained as 
an attorney specializing in public safety issues such as air quality management and 
toxic waste disposal. Ryan spent several years as a California State Assemblyman be- 
fore running for Congress. Ryan serves on the powerful House Ways and Means Com- 
mittee, the Subcommittee on National Parks and Public Lands, as well as the Water 
and Power Resources Subcommittee. 
Doug Ryan's colleagues in the House describe him as an able and efficient legisla- 
tor. He is considered quite knowledgeable in environmental policy as well as in eco- 
nomic and budgetary concerns. Ryan has proved quite capable at balancing the com- 
peting interests behind government policy. This is partly due to the fact that he is 
openminded to new ideas and skillful at translating those ideas into realistic legislation. 
He has worked very hard to get various nonpartisan measures approved by the 
Congress that would benefit the economic future as well as the environmental future 
SCANDAL AND CANDIDATE EVALUATIONS 21 
of the nation, On a key bill to protect the California parks from commercial develop- 
ment, Ryan could be found at all hours of the day or night hammering out the details 
of the legislation. After months of negotiation, the bill passed with a clear majority 
from both sides of the aisle. 
While Doug Ryan is admired for his contributions to important legislation, he is not 
seen as a particularly sociable man. Ryan tends to be serious and dedicated to his 
work, which leaves others with the impression that he is a cold fish. Though Ryan is 
often an invited speaker at benefit dinners in and around Washington, his speaking 
style also tends to be serious and dry. 
NOTES 
1. Reaction to complex scandals such as Watergateand the Iran-Contra affair may be quite 
different from that to the type of scandals considered here. Those scandals, for example, 
involved (1) multiple behaviors, (2) acts that bear more directly on professional roles rather 
than personal ones, and (3) implications of a large number of actors. Several studies have 
examined public opinion to these scandals (see, e.g., Lang and Lang, 1983; Schudson, 1992, 
on Watergate; Krosnick and Kinder, 1990, on the Iran-Contra affair). 
2. A wide array of indicators and labels has been used to separate out the more politically 
sophisticated including expertise, sophistication, involvement, awareness, interest, attention, 
media exposure, and information or knowledge levels. While the present study is concep- 
tually linked to an underlying dimension of sophistication or expertise, information or knowl- 
edge levels best represent the measure used here. Zaller (1990; see also Fiske, Lau, and 
Smith, 1990) has found general political knowledge measures to be the most important de- 
terminants for a number of criterion variables, especially attitude stability and consistency 
(but see also Krosniek, 1990). 
3. One subject was dropped from the MANOVA analyses due to missing data. Those unac- 
customed to experimental research may be concerned about basing conclusions on a sample 
of this size. The use of repeated measures and the relatively homogeneous subject popula- 
tion both serve to increase the power of the present analysis. Master power tables in 
Kraemer and Thiemann (1987) indicate that for 80 percent power using a .05 critical p-value 
and a two-tailed test, analyses based on approximately 83 subjects would detect a critical 
effect size of about .30. For subgroup analyses based on half that number, the critical effect 
size that could be detected at the 80% power level would be about .40. The critical effect 
size represents the minimum difference needed to detect a true difference between groups. 
It is calculated from a measure of quantitative difference, such as the difference between 
means of two groups, divided by a measure of variability such as the standard deviation. So, 
while the power of the tests here could be improved with additional subjects, it is not 
unreasonably low. 
4. A fourth variable was included as a replication variable of the trait information. There were 
two versions of each trait configuration. Pilot tests indicated that the different trait configura- 
tion versions led to only minor and generally nonsignificant differences on overall evaluation 
and trait ratings. Analyses with a four-factor model in the present experiment found no 
significant effects of trait version. Trait version was dropped from all subsequent analyses, 
5. Pilot tests indicated that valenced information on a single trait dimension did lead to the 
anticipated halo effects and that the present combination of mixed valence and trait informa- 
tion was successful in reducing those effects. 
6. A total of 16 different orders were used to fully vary the order of presentation for all factors. 
22 FUNK 
7. All MANOVA analyses used the Wilks' lambda statistic, F, and a significance level ofp < .05. 
8. The warmth ratings consisted of a four-item index that averaged 7-point bipolar ratings on 
warm, charisma, personable, and sociable. A high score on the index indicates greater per- 
ceived warmth (average alpha = .86). 
9. The competence ratings consisted of a four-item index that averaged 7-point bipolar ratings 
on doing a good job, competent, makes few mistakes, and informed. A high score on the 
index indicates greater perceived competence (average alpha = .82). 
10. This finding is consistent with results from four pilot studies of the trait information that 
consistently showed greater differentiation between trait configuration conditions on the 
warmth rfitings than on the competence ratings. 
11. The trustworthiness index was formed from the average of four 7-point bipolar ratings on 
reliable, moral, trustworthy, and means what says (average alpha = .82). 
12. Note that while there tends to be an association between political knowledge and gender, an 
earlier test found no significant effects of gender on overall evaluations. 
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