The Mediterranean Leadership in Student Representative Elections: The Effectiveness of the Hybrid Leadership Style on Voting Intention and the Mediating Role of Affective Evaluation

Politics resembles how a play unfolds on the stage, with various acts and actors who pull the strings to move the cogs. Therefore, politicians utilise leadership styles and emotions. The effectiveness of leadership styles on voting intention has been studied in isolation; to our knowledge, there is a gap in investigating the impact of leadership styles on voting intention with a mediating role of emotions. The lack of a hybridisation process became a focal point for identifying a hybrid leadership style framework called The Mediterranean Leadership (MedL), utilising the populist and distributed leadership styles of Giorgia Meloni and UdU. A 3x2 mixed experimental vignette design was conducted with 107 students at the UniPD, assigning participants to one of the three experimental conditions (MedL, ICL, and Charismatic Leadership). Within each condition, participants compared two vignettes. The mediation of affective evaluation was investigated by utilising a feeling thermometer. The study aimed to demonstrate the prevailing impact of the MedL on voting intention compared to other conditions, as well as the mediating effect of affective evaluation on voting intention. The results of the study indicate full mediation of affective evaluation (p < .001) on leadership styles, while observing the significance of hybrid leadership styles within group voting intention, indicating that MedL is resistant (M = 6.42). In contrast, ICL got harmed by affective evaluation and voting intention (M = 5.64). These findings suggest that hybrid leadership styles might serve as an alternative for convincing constituents.