The Role of Perceived Warmth, Competence, and Opportunity on Candidate Threat Perception and Campaign Participation: Extending the Stereotype Content Model

According to the stereotype content model, negative campaign messaging should induce the greatest perception of threat and promote greater campaign participation when a political candidate presents the outgroup candidate as lacking in warmth but possessing a high level of competence. However, the current political environment suggests that political campaigns can also induce perceptions of threat by focusing on the external circumstances that provide the outgroup candidate with opportunity to enact their malevolent agenda. To examine this possibility, we conduct a between-subjects experiment and test a three-way moderated mediation model in which participants (N = 259) were asked to imagine that the outgroup candidate would inherit either a unified (high opportunity) or divided (low opportunity) government, should they win the election. In line with expectations, results demonstrated that the role of perceived competence in moderating the direct relationship between perceived warmth and perceived threat was weaker in the unified government condition compared to the divided government condition; however, its role in moderating the overall indirect relationship between perceived warmth and campaign participation did not differ across the unified and divided government conditions.