Date Thesis Awarded

12-2015

Access Type

Honors Thesis -- Access Restricted On-Campus Only

Degree Name

Bachelors of Arts (BA)

Department

Government

Advisor

Cheryl L. Dickter

Committee Members

Meghan Sinton-Miller

Jaime Settle

Abstract

This study seeks to examine how gender stereotypes and political party stereotypes influence voters’ evaluation of candidates and vote choice through evaluating voters’ reactions to stereotypic expectancy violations by fictional candidates. Previous research has suggested that multiple factors contribute to vote choice, such as political party affiliation and subjective attitudes about gender roles and stereotypes. Participants (n = 200), recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk, were asked to evaluate fictional Republican and Democratic male and female presidential candidates, and to fill out surveys defining their attitudes and beliefs on gender roles and stereotypes. No interactions were found between a candidate’s gender and political party and the participants’ political party affiliation. Attitudes about gender roles for men and women played a part in evaluating candidates’ competency and ability to govern. Future research should study the mechanisms behind traditional gender attitudes’ effect on vote choice and incorporate other demographic and social factors, such as biases regarding race and sexuality, into election data collection in order to examine their effect on vote choice.

Recommended Citation

Nagashunmugam, Minu V., "Not All Politicians Are the Same: The Effect of Gender and Political Party on Candidate Evaluation" (2015). Undergraduate Honors Theses. William & Mary. Paper 989.
https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses/989