Why Americans Choose To Vote

There are many factors that voters contemplate when choosing which politician is deserving of their vote. While we would like to think the most important factors in choosing a politician is their policies that will affect our lives, many times voters subconsciously, and sometimes consciously, choose to vote for someone based simply on language. This could be in the form of voting for someone with a similar accent, voting for someone who is a great speaker, voting for someone who has a likable personality or voting for a candidate with a catchy campaign slogan. Although many people would believe this to be superficial, this is actually the second leading factor in deciding whom to vote for only behind a candidate’s party identification (Visser

Neither had a particular policy or a goal that truly captivated the American people and thus left a large number of undecided voters. Do to clever marketing by the Obama campaign, he was able to score a large majority of the undecided voter base and in turn, won the election. Do you recall the McCain campaign slogan? Chances are, probably not, but most people remember Obama’s slogan of “Hope”. This concise positivity resonated with people, and Obama was able to gain the support of a large number of voters McCain could have gained.

Barack Obama was also able to gain undecided voters by being viewed as far more likable than McCain. In a study done by two political scientists at the University of Spain, it was found that there are five personality traits that voters find most important when choosing who to vote for. They are: good leadership, knowledgeability, intelligence, honesty and optimism. In their research, Ribes and Griner found that Obama beat McCain in all five of these categories, consequently costing McCain his bid at the presidency (Ribes and Griner