Honesty is the top quality voters expect in their presidential candidates

Washington, Nov 16 (ANI): Presidential candidates pay attention, please! A new study has found the key characteristics that voters consider when they're choosing a candidate for the post of president.

According to the research, the top ideal quality picks are a candidate's honesty and willingness to talk about the challenges affecting the nation.

New research led by Judith Trent of the University of Cincinnati, has yielded some surprising findings from surveys from the 2008 primary campaign in New Hampshire.

The UC researchers examined presidential campaign communication, the qualities or attributes that voters want in a president, and they explored whether these views shift over time.

Because of the historic diversity of the 2008 presidential campaign, the researchers added a series of questions examining voter opinion on demographic variables including race, gender, age and religion.

The people surveyed in 2008 felt that the three most important qualities of the candidates were honesty, talking about the nation's problems and being compassionate about people's needs.

"Honesty has always ranked very high in this longitudinal study, yet it's hard for respondents to assess or measure," wrote the authors.

The article, titled, 'Cracked and Shattered Ceilings: Gender, Race, Religion, Age, and the Ideal Candidate,' was published in the journal American Behavioral Scientist. (ANI)