Browsing by Author "Elcil, Tuğçenaz"

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COVID-19 tehdidinin siyasi lider tercihleri üzerindeki etkisi: Sağ yönelimli ve sol yönelimli kişilerin tercihleri arasındaki farklılıklar
(2021) Elcil, Tuğçenaz; Alper, Sinan
Unexpected and threatening situations that remind people of their mortality and lead to an increase in existential concerns such as terrorist attacks, infectious diseases, or an experimentally manipulated threat perception have been found to be effective on various social and political attitudes and behaviors. Several studies showed that such situations also have an effect on political leader preferences, mediated by perceived personality characteristics of political leaders. Moreover, political leader preferences of people with different political orientations may differ depending on the perceived personality characteristics of political leaders. The current research has two main aims: (1) To investigate how the existential concerns due to COVID-19 affects political candidate preferences based on the personality characteristics of candidates (whether warm or competent); (2) To investigate whether political orientation predicts the difference between voting intentions for warm and competent political candidates. An experimental study with 687 Turkish participants was conducted. Participants were randomly assigned to mortality salience condition or control condition, and political candidate characteristics were manipulated as one of the candidates has warm-related characteristics and the other has competent-related characteristics. It was found that COVID-19 related mortality salience manipulation had no effect on political candidate preferences, while the personality of political candidate had a significant effect on the political candidate preferences. Specifically, results showed that political candidate that has competent-related personality characteristics was more likely to be preferred by participants. Also, it was found that political orientation did not predict the difference between the voting intentions for warm and competent political candidates, and this finding was discussed in light of the worldview defense hypothesis of Terror Management Theory and conservative shift hypothesis. It was shown that both of the left-oriented and right-oriented participants were more likely to prefer the political candidate who had competent-related personality characteristics, compared to the political candidate with warm-related characteristics. The possible explanations of these findings, limitations of the present study and suggestions for future studies were discussed.