An Exploration of the Impact of the Familiarity of a Celebrity Candidate on Intention to Vote and Liking

Little research has examined the effect familiarity with a celebrity candidate can have on the outcome of a political race. In this study, participants indicated more liking and greater intention to vote for a celebrity running in a political race than an unknown candidate, regardless of participants' need for cognition and level of political involvement. This suggests that familiarity may be a factor in deliberate political decision-making, as well as a heuristic in peripheral processing.