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Does music affect citizens’ evaluations of candidates?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 August 2021

Emmanuel Heisbourg Open the ORCID record for Emmanuel Heisbourg [Opens in a new window]  and
Fernando Feitosa
Emmanuel Heisbourg*
Affiliation:
Université de Montréal
Fernando Feitosa
Affiliation:
McGill University
*
Correspondence: Emmanuel Heisbourg, Department of Political Science, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Canada. Email: emmanuel.heisbourg@umontreal.ca
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Abstract

While some candidates use music in some of their campaign ads to shape individuals’ perceptions of their competence or compassion, for example, it is unclear whether the relationship between music and trait perceptions is empirically valid. Considering the importance of knowing where trait perceptions—which represent important determinants of the vote—come from and the extent to which it is possible to manipulate trait perceptions by means of music, this study investigates the effect of music on trait perceptions using data from an online survey experiment conducted between October 30 and November 12, 2020. In this experiment, 362 individuals were exposed to a random sequence of five campaign ads, either with their original music or with no music. Following each campaign ad, individuals were asked to evaluate the candidate’s competency, honesty, leadership, and compassion. The analyses reveal that music marginally affects perceptions of competency, honesty, and leadership. Moreover, music exerts no significant effect on perceptions of compassion.

Keywords

Political ScienceMusicExperimentCommunication
Type
Special Issue: Psychophysiology, Cognition, and Political Differences
Information
Politics and the Life Sciences , Volume 40 , Issue 2 , Fall 2021 , pp. 172 - 178
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Association for Politics and the Life Sciences

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