The Effect of Implicit Leadership Prototypes Within the Political Context

In attempting to understand political outcomes, emphasis has traditionally focused on characteristics of political leaders and more recently, follower characteristics. However, individual-level implicit beliefs about what characteristics an ideal leader should possess have been largely unexamined in the political context. The present research finds that a) the implicit leadership theory (ILT) factor structure primarily discussed in business settings holds within the political context, b) that the factor structure is consistent across individual differences of party affiliation and political ideology, and c) that ILT plays a role in determining political outcomes, such that ILT mediates the relationship between political ideology and voting behavior. The current work complements and extends the current literature on ILTs into the political context, discussing and providing evidence for the implications of ILTs on voting behavior. Data were collected from 577 participants via Amazon Mechanical Turk during a two-week period before, and up to, the 2020 United States presidential election. Participation was limited to those who were 18 years of age or older, and those who were located in the United States of America. After data were screened, 18 cases were removed from the study for missing data, failed attention checks, or response bias, resulting in 559 cases that were used in the analyses. Measures include Implicit Leadership (21 items developed by Epitropaki and Martin, 2004), political affiliation and ideology (using items from the General Social Survey (GSS; Davern, et al., 1972-2022)), self-reported voting behavior for the 2020 and 2016 U.S. presidential elections, and demographic information including gender, race/color, national origin, age, employment status, and if they served in the U.S. military.