Research in social psychology and personality looks at perceived characteristics contributing to the appeal and electability of folks running for office. Back in the day, demonstrating trustworthiness (e.g., making reliable and valid claims, not lying habitually) and warmth, empathy, and compassion were crucial for winning an election. A new construct contributing to a candidate’s profile is affective appeal, defined as a set of imbued traits that enable a candidate to successfully reach a constituency even when a candidate 1) lacks compassion or empathy, and 2) demonstrates a casual relationship with “the truth,” regularly making baseless claims as determined by fact checkers, journalists, scientists, and academics.

I conducted a study (Killian, 2025) with a representative U.S. sample (N = 473) that describes the development of a reliable, valid, seven-item scale for measuring affective appeal (alpha = .91). Sample items include: “It’s okay when leaders whom I really like make claims or assertions not borne out of by the facts,” “The way leaders whom I like say something is far more important to me than the specifics of what they say,” “It’s not as important that leaders whom I really like know what they’re talking about all of the time,” and “Leaders whom I really like do not have to have ‘science’ or ‘research’ on their side.”

Five factors accounted for 58 percent of affective appeal’s........

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