选民们都比较愿意给那些他们认为比较有自尊心的男政党候选人投票——这项发现也许能帮助说明候任总统·奥巴马选举获胜的原因。
　　 2007年秋，维吉尔·齐格勒·希尔和艾琳·迈尔斯让209名在校大学生评估8个民主党总统候选人（包括希拉里·克林顿和巴拉克·奥巴马）和10个共和党总统候选人（包括约翰·麦凯恩和罗姆尼）各自的自尊程度，并说出他们对每个候选人投票的意愿程度。
　　 正如你所想的那样，学生们各自的政党隶属关系对他们的投票意愿有关键性的影响。然而，除了党派性的影响之外，那些参与者通常都倾向于说他们会愿意给那些他们觉得比较有自尊心的候选人投票。
　　 支持民主党的女学生们是个例外：她们说不太愿意给那些她们觉得比较有自尊心的共和党男候选人投票，并说她们不愿意给克林顿投票，不管她们觉得她的自尊程度如何。
　　 第二个研究和第一个类似，只是这次293个在校大学生拿到的是每个候选人不真实的自尊程度数值，这些数值表面上看来是由分析候选人们的演讲而得出来的。然而，这次还是有例外：男民主党人比较愿意投票给克林顿，如果她的自尊程度数值比较低的话；而参与者中的女共和党人则不太愿意投票给克林顿，如果她的自尊程度数值比较高的话。
　　总的来说，这些发现都与齐格勒•希尔关于自尊的完全理论相一致，该理论指出：我们（可能是下意识地）倾向于设想比较有自尊心的人会同时具有其它积极的个性。这个理论填补了“社会关系测量学模式”的空白，该模式声称：自尊已逐渐成为人们社会地位的标识。有点可预知地，在最近的多个研究中，奥巴马的自尊程度在所有的候选人中位居榜首。这跟他在总统竞选中所表现出来的极大自尊并勇于承认自己的弱点的举动相一致。
　　“奥巴马有把他对自身价值的感觉传达给别人的能力，也许是这种能力帮助他规划出了让选民们如此信服的富有能力与自尊心的形象。齐格勒•希尔告诉《读者文摘》，“在我看来，选民们倾向于认为奥巴马是一个非常自尊的人，这种倾向在他的获胜中多多少少起到了一定的作用。他那表达自尊的非凡能力对在政治舞台上相对年轻和经验有限的他来说尤其重要。”
但在研究中有些参与者认为希拉里·克林顿如果比较自尊的话就不投票给她，这个发现说明了什么问题呢？女候选人应表现得不那么自尊吗？“女候选人经常处于矛盾的要求中。”齐格勒•希尔说，“如果她们表现得非常自尊，选民会认为她们太具侵略性或刚愎自用而不看好她们。而如果她们表现得不那么自尊，选民们会认为她们的能力不及她们的男竞选者。我可以比较乐观地说这种对女候选人的矛盾要求在将来会有所减少，因为到那时选民们会更容易接受处于选举位置上的女从政者。”
　　Voters are more willing to vote for male political candidates whom they perceive to have high self-esteem - a finding which could help explain President Elect Barack Obama's electoral success.
　　In Autumn 2007, Virgil Zeigler-Hill and Erin Myers asked 209 undergraduates to rate the self-esteem of the eight potential democratic candidates for president (including Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama) and the ten republican candidates (including John McCain and Mitt Romney), and to also indicate their willingness to vote for each of them.
　　As you'd expect, the students' own political affiliations played a key role in their willingness to vote. Beyond this partisan influence, however, the participants were generally more inclined to say they'd be willing to vote for those candidates whom they perceived to have higher self esteem.
　　The exceptions were female republican students: they said they'd be less willing to vote for those democratic male candidates whom they perceived to have high self esteem, and they also said they were unwilling to vote for Clinton regardless of how they perceived her self-esteem.
　　A second study was similar to the first except that 293 undergrads were given fake self-esteem data for each of the candidates, ostensibly derived from analyses of speeches they'd given. Participants were generally more willing to vote for candidates who'd been allocated high self-esteem ratings. Again, however, there were exceptions: male democrats were actually more willing to vote for Clinton if she was given a low self-esteem rating, while female republican participants were less willing to vote for her if she was given a high self-esteem rating.
　　Overall, the findings are consistent with Zeigler-Hill's implicit theory of self-esteem, which states that we (perhaps subconsciously) assume that people with high self-esteem also have other positive traits. The theory complements the "sociometer model" that purports self-esteem has evolved as a marker for people's social status.
　　Somewhat presciently, in the first of the current studies, Obama was actually rated as having the highest self-esteem of all the candidates, a fact that chimes with his performance during the presidential campaign during which he conveyed immense self-belief, whilst also acknowledging his weaknesses.
　　"Obama’s ability to convey his feelings of self-worth to others may have helped him project the image of competence and confidence that voters found so compelling," Zeigler Hill told the Digest. "In my opinion, the tendency for voters to perceive Obama as someone with high self-esteem may have played at least some limited role in his success. His ability to portray confidence may have been especially important for him because of his relative youth and limited experience on the national stage."
　　But what about the findings suggesting participants were less willing to vote for Hillary Clinton if she was perceived as having high self-esteem? Should female candidates play down their self-esteem? "Female candidates are often caught between conflicting demands," Zeigler-Hill said. "If they are portrayed as having high self-esteem, they may be disliked because they are considered aggressive or domineering. However, if they appear to have low self-esteem, female candidates may be viewed as less competent than their male counterparts. I am optimistic that these conflicting demands for female candidates will be reduced to some degree in the future as voters become more comfortable with women in elected positions."