Politicultural Linking: Inferences between Political and Apolitical Traits

Evidence concerning inferences between political and apolitical traits hasgrown exponentially in recent years. This thriving literature – dealing with research onpolitical stereotypes and projection around sociodemographic, psychological, andlifestyle traits –, is disconnected and needs to be placed under a unifying framework. Toachieve this, we introduce “Politicultural Linking”, a concept subsuming politicalinferences from apolitical cues and apolitical inferences from political cues. Through anextensive literature review of the works produced since 2009, we discuss and classifyresearch on this topic, identifying common features, strengths, and weaknesses, anddepicting a comprehensive conceptual framework. Moreover, we identify relevant gapsin the literature: the under-exploration of inferences involving lifestyle preferences, theoverrepresentation of US-based studies, the overlooked role of projection, and the lackof non-survey-based research. Consequently, we aim to set the agenda for futurestudies on this topic