Politicultural linking: Inferences between political and apolitical traits

Evidence concerning inferences between political and apolitical traits has grown exponentially in recent years. This thriving literature—dealing with research on political stereotypes and projection around sociodemographic, psychological, and lifestyle traits—is disconnected and needs to be placed under a unifying framework. To achieve this, we introduce “Politicultural Linking,” a concept subsuming political inferences from apolitical cues and apolitical inferences from political cues. Through an extensive literature review of the works produced since 2009, we discuss and classify research on this topic, identifying common features, strengths, and weaknesses, and depicting a comprehensive conceptual framework. Moreover, we identify relevant gaps in the literature: the underexploration of inferences involving lifestyle preferences, the overrepresentation of US-based studies, the overlooked role of projection, and the lack of non-survey-based research. Consequently, we aim to set the agenda for future studies on this topic.