Voting like a boss: the effect of implicit leadership prototypes within the political context

Purpose Most modern research on implicit leadership theory (ILT) has been couched in an organizational management context, focusing on business leaders, despite early acknowledgement that the context matters in understanding leadership prototypes. This research aims to explore the role of ILT in the context of political voting behavior. In attempting to understand political outcomes, emphasis has traditionally focused on characteristics of political leaders and more recently, follower characteristics. However, individual-level implicit beliefs about what characteristics an ideal leader should possess have been largely unexamined in the political context. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from a sample of 559 participants via Amazon Mechanical Turk, who provided survey responses about ILT, political identification and ideology, voting behavior in the 2016 and 2020 US presidential elections and other demographic variables. Analyses included examination of the ILT measurement model in the political context, examination of the generalizability of ILT across politically relevant individual difference factors and an empirical test of a proposed mediation model hypothesizing ILT as a mediator between political ideology and voting behavior. Findings The present research finds that the ILT factor structure primarily discussed in business settings holds within the political context, the factor structure is consistent across individual differences of party affiliation and political ideology and ILT mediates the relationship between political ideology and voting behavior. Originality/value The current work complements and extends the current literature on ILTs into the political context, discussing and providing evidence for the implications of ILTs on voting behavior. The extension of ILT research into the political context is important because how voters view political leaders has practical implications for the outcomes of elections.