Mirror, mirror on the wall: Candidate image and political impression management

Abstract

The relevance of candidate image research as an element of political impression management has been scrutinized and contested, as it has been the case for candidate image research in many other scientific domains. For decades the emphasis of political science research was on more conventional topics such as the influences of political ideology, the impact of political rhetoric, the role of political structures and institutions. Nevertheless, with the birth of mass media and maybe even more so with the more recent introduction of social media, the emergence of a predominant visual culture has put candidate image at the centre of political impression formation processes. The managing of political impressions deserves particular attention and profound research. In this article we present an overview of relevant theories and research linked to candidate image within political impression management. The article will firstly discuss how the trend towards perception politics emerged and will revisit the role of perceptions and the formation of politically relevant impressions. Secondly, this article will focus on the politically suitable appearance and the concept of candidate image as an important part of both offline and online political impression management.