Identity, politics and authentic leadership. Spanish youngsters’ perceptions of J. L. Rodríguez Zapatero and M. Rajoy

Abstract

This article presents a framework for the analysis of audience’s perceptions about political leaders. Specifically, we focus on the perceptions of two Spanish leaders: José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the former Prime Minister, and Mariano Rajoy, the current Prime Minister. We wanted to test how young people perceive and evaluate the identity of these two political leaders. We also tried to determine the role played by media in the formation of these complex images. After the analysis of data collected from a sample of 108 participants, significant differential effects concerning the way people perceive both leaders have not been found. Results indicate that in crisis periods leaders lack authenticity, thus voters have a negative perception of them. It has also found some positive correlation between the authentic leadership’s variables and the Big Five personality factors. Throughout this paper, theoretical and methodological problems of such an approach are discussed.