How elections shape perceptions of ideal leadership

Individuals hold internal leadership representations, termed leadership prototypes. We examined how these prototypes changed in reaction to the 2020 U.S. presidential election. A sample of Republicans (N = 200), Democrats (N = 200), and individuals who identified with neither major party (N = 200), surveyed eight times between October 2020 and January 2021, and reported their perceptions of the characteristics of the ideal leader. Results from a regression discontinuity in time and repeated measurement analyses found that the election altered two dimensions of the average U.S. leadership prototype. We specifically find participants' perceptions of Tyranny and Masculinity to decrease, that is, shifts to more Biden-like and less Trump-like leadership prototypes. Other dimensions of the leadership prototype remained stable, that is, charisma, sensitivity, dedication, intelligence, and dynamism. Analyses examined two boundary conditions of the effect: political identification and the acceptance of the election result as legitimate. Only perceived legitimacy was found to moderate the effect with the shift in leadership prototypes being driven by individuals who accepted the result of the election as legitimate. Our findings demonstrate the dynamic nature of leadership prototypes in response to real-world events and more broadly how an election can shape psychological perceptions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).