AUDIENCE PERCEPTIONS OF POLITICIANS SELF-PRESENTATIONAL BEHAVIORS CONCERNING THEIR OWN ABILITIES

Effects of self-presentational behaviors of 2 German politicians durin g an election campaign were analyzed. Six scenes from interviews with the politicians were presented to 43 German students, who qualitativel y evaluated the politicians' performances. The participants did not pe rceive behaviors such as interrupting journalists, brushing off critic ism, reacting with countercriticism, and attacking the opponent person ally as indicators of strength but interpreted them as signs of aggres sion and arrogance. On the other hand, the participants associated cal m reactions to criticism, focused attacks on the opponent, and explana tions of opinions and plans with self-assurance and competence. Althou gh the participants evaluated overt positive self-description negative ly,they evaluated indirect self-enhancement positively. The participan ts' party affiliations were largely unrelated to their evaluations.