Who Values Political Authenticity? The Antecedents and Electoral Consequences of Voters' Preference for Authentic Politicians

Previous research shows positive correlations between political authenticity and voters' decisions. When citizens perceive individual politicians as more authentic, they are more likely to support them and their respective parties. However, researchers have given little attention to the role of citizens' individual preferences for authenticity. While many assume that political authenticity is generally important to citizens, few studies have empirically tested this belief. Further, citizens value different qualities in politicians, but it remains unclear how the influence of authenticity on voting decisions compares to other candidate characteristics. To address these aspects, we conducted an online survey experiment with a quota sample in Germany (N = 1,485). Our findings reveal that perceived political authenticity influences respondents' voting intention even when we control for other candidate image variables. Additionally, the effect of perceived political authenticity on voting intentions is moderated by whether respondents view authenticity as an important characteristic of politicians. Notably, citizens differ in how much they value the authenticity of politicians. These differences are linked in part to socio-demographic factors (e.g., education) and political attitudes (e.g., political interest) but not to media exposure.