Searching for a common methodological ground for the study of politicians' perceived personality traits: A multilevel psycholexical approach

- The lexical approach is useful in the taxonomy of perceived politicians' traits.
- Politicians' personality perception has a multilevel structure.
- Standard measures of personality are not appropriate for studying politician's image.
- Voters perceive politicians' personality on four dimensions.
- Perceived politicians' personality is strictly connected with voter preference.

The aim of the three-stage psycholexical research was to systematize individual differences in voters' perception of politicians' personality traits and the differentiation dimensions of politicians' images using the example of Ukraine. On the basis of 200 interviews, politicians' personality lexicon was compiled and categorized. A representative sample of that lexicon was used in a study concerning the perception of several dozen politicians which allowed to identify four dimensions of politicians' perceived personality traits at the individual and aggregate levels, distinct from the classic Big Five. Another study confirmed the stability of the structure of perception based on 2-level CFA and a strong relationship of personality image with preferences for politicians based on 2-level regression analysis.