The Republican Who Did Not Want to Become President: Colin Powell's Impact on Evaluations of the Republican Party and Bob Dole

Abstract

In this study, respondents' attention was either drawn to Colin Powell's decision to join the Republican Party or to his decision not to run as a presidential candidate of this party before they began to evaluate the Republican Party or Bob Dole. When the Republican Party was first evaluated, thinking about Powell's party membership resulted in more favorable evaluations and thinking about his refusal to run as its candidate resulted in less favorable evaluations relative to a control condition. When Bob Dole was first evaluated, thinking of Powell always resulted in more negative evaluations. Moreover, carryover effects between both judgments were observed (i.e., initial judgments of the party affected subsequent judgments about Dole, and vice versa, in an additive manner). The results are consistent with predictions derived from Schwarz and Bless's inclusion/exclusion model of social judgment.