Almost no Florida voters, it seems, want a president with empathy.

That’s one of the notable findings in a Florida Atlantic University poll released last month that asked the state’s voters what personality trait they value the most in a presidential candidate.

Empathy was dead last, at 4%.

And it could be even lower. The survey’s margin of error was plus or minus three percentage points. So the true share of people who most want empathy could be close to zero.

Among Republicans, 0% chose empathy as the personality trait they most wanted in a president, compared to 8% among Democrats and 4% among independent voters.

The desire for empathy was low among men and women, with no statistical difference.

It’s a far cry from the 1992 presidential election, when then candidate Bill Clinton became known for the phrase, “I feel your pain.”

What do voters in 2023 most prize in a presidential candidate?

Among Democrats, it’s “integrity,” which was the top choice by far, 51%, followed by leadership (20%), intelligence (13%), stability (9%) and empathy (8%).

Among Republicans, the top choice was “leadership,” at 56% followed by integrity (34%), intelligence (7%), stability (3%) and empathy (0%).

Independents were evenly split, with 40% picking integrity and 41% choosing leadership. Another 13% of independents chose intelligence, 4% empathy and 3% stability.

Women most want integrity (45%), followed by leadership (33%), intelligence (12%), stability (7%) and empathy (3%).

Men most want leadership (45%), followed by Integrity (38%), intelligence (10%), empathy (4%), and stability (4%).

Among all voters together, 42% said integrity was the personality trait they most wanted in a presidential candidate, 39% chose leadership, 11% said intelligence, 5% stability and 4% empathy.

Related Articles

“I think the empathy question really speaks a lot about the state of our political discourse,” said FAU political scientist Kevin Wagner. “It does suggest that to voters, beating the other side is more important than understanding the other side.”

The poll was conducted Oct. 27 to Nov. 11, but unlike opinions about some current events or which candidate is up or down, Wagner said he thinks major shifts in the findings aren’t likely.

The survey was done by Mainstreet Research for Florida Atlantic University’s PolCom Lab, which is a collaboration of the School of Communication and Multimedia Studies and Department of Political Science.

The survey used text messages to reach 946 Florida registered voters who responded to a link to complete the survey online. The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points for the full survey of Democrats, Republicans and independents. The margin of error for smaller groups, such as Republicans, Democrats, men and women, is higher because the sample sizes are smaller

Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com and can be found @browardpolitics on Facebook, Threads.net and Post.news.