COMPASSION AND VOTING-BEHAVIOR IN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS

This study examines the role of compassion in voter assessments of candidate images in the 1988 presidential election. It is a quality often ignored in these analyses. This article compares compassion with three other dimensions of candidate image-leadership, integrity, and intelligence-and finds that approximately two-fifths of all voters in 1988 were influenced more by their evaluations of the candidates' level of compassion than by the other dimensions of candidate image.