Audience perceptions of politicians' self-presentational behaviors concerning their own abilities

Effects of self-presentational behaviors of 2 German politicians during an election campaign were analyzed. Six scenes from interviews with the politicians were presented to 43 German students, who qualitatively evaluated the politicians' performances. The participants did not perceive behaviors such as interrupting journalists, brushing off criticism, reacting with countercriticism, and attacking the opponent personally as indicators of strength but interpreted them as signs of aggression and arrogance. On the other hand, the participants associated calm reactions to criticism, focused attacks on the opponent, and explanations of opinions and plans with self-assurance and competence. Although the participants evaluated overt positive self-description negatively, they evaluated indirect self-enhancement positively. The participants' party affiliations were largely unrelated to their evaluations.