It's Who's on the Inside that Counts: Campaign Practitioner Personality and Campaign Electoral Integrity

Candidates for public office (and the individuals who run their campaigns) are not a randomly selected subset of the general population. Individuals with certain personality traits are more likely to become involved in political campaigns, are more likely to harbor political ambition, are more likely to be recruited to run for public office, and are more likely to actually run for office. But what influence do differences in individual traits have on the behavior of political campaigns? Using a unique survey of staff and candidates working on congressional, senatorial, and gubernatorial campaigns in the 2016 election cycle, this research shows that individual personality traits influence the decisions that campaigns make during the election. Personality traits affect the acceptance of campaign negativity and unethical campaign behaviors.