Voting Cues in Low-Information Elections: Candidate Gender as a Social Information Variable in Contemporary United States Elections

McDermott, Monika L.

doi:10.2307/2111716

Cited by 433 publications

(339 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Her results also indicate that the probability of voting for a black candidate is higher for voters who perceive themselves as being more liberal. Using data from the 1986 to 1994 American National Election Studies, McDermott (1997) finds that female Democratic candidates perform better than male Democratic candidates among more liberal voters and worse among conservative voters. However, Fox and Oxley (2003) do not find clear-cut gender stereotype effects.…”

Section: Related Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

It's the occupation, stupid! Explaining candidates' success in low-information elections

Mechtel

2014

European Journal of Political Economy

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Abstract Do voters use ballot paper information on the personal characteristics of political candidates as cues in low-information elections? Using a unique dataset containing 4423 political candidates from recent elections in Germany, we show that candidates' occupations do play an important role in their electoral success. The occupational impact is far greater than gender or doctoral degree effects for a large number of occupations. We discuss three possible explanations for these "occupational effects": (a) an occupation's public reputation, (b) the extent to which individuals carrying out certain occupations are known within their communities, and (c) occupation specific competence related to issues relevant for local politics. Looking at polls on the reputation/prestige of certain jobs, we find a strong correlation between an occupation's reputation and the electoral success of a candidate carrying out this occupation. Therefore, voters appear to use occupational reputation as a cue in low-information elections. Terms of use: Documents in

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Section: Related Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

It's the occupation, stupid! Explaining candidates' success in low-information elections

Mechtel

2014

European Journal of Political Economy

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“…As such, Americans often rely upon source cues or traits (such as a messenger's ethnicity, race, or gender) because they lack the ability to comprehensively analyze the costs and benefits associated with each candidate to come to a fully informed decision (Converse 1964;Hayes 2010;Hovland et al 1953;Koch 2000;Kuklinski and Hurley 1994;Lau and Redlawsk 2001;Lodge, McGraw, and Stroh 1989;Rahn 1993). Source cues such as the name of a candidate might be especially important in low-information electoral or decisionmaking contexts (Butler and Broockman 2011;Matson and Fine 2006;McDermott 1997;. Given the link between Latinos and immigration in the minds of Americans, we expect to see a positive and significant effect of a candidate's Latino ethnicity upon trait scores-trustworthiness on immigration, strength of leadership on immigration, qualification to discuss immigration, and experience on immigration-as compared with an Anglo candidate, ceteris paribus.…”

Section: Issue Ownership and Why Latino Candidates Might Own Immigrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Owning Immigration: Messenger Ethnicity, Issue Ownership, and Support for Latino Candidates

Shortle

Johnson

2017

J. Race Ethnicity Politics

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Abstract:The public opinion literature stresses the importance of source cues in determining which types of messages affect attitudes and which types do not. Building upon such research, we seek to determine if messenger ethnicity influences how individuals evaluate candidates speaking on immigration in the context of a campaign. Do Americans (and Anglo Americans in particular) view Latino candidates as more experienced, stronger leaders, more trustworthy, and more qualified on immigration than Anglo candidates? Moreover, do such relationships hold regardless of the valence of the message itself ? Through an original survey experiment presenting subjects with immigration talk on the campaign trail, we find Latino candidates are reviewed more positively than Anglo candidates when it comes to the immigration messages they speak (especially when it comes to pro-immigration messages). Such findings give us insight into whether or not Latino candidates have the potential to "own" the issue of immigration, as well as offering another path by which Latino candidates can gain a strong foothold with the public in the context of a campaign.

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“…A persistent belief about female candidates is that they are seen as biased toward gender issues, regardless of their partisanship, and thus they are often perceived as being supportive of a progressive gender agenda (Leeper 1991;Huddy and Terkildsen 1993;McDermott 1997;Sanbonmatsu and Dolan 2009). As a result, some voters may believe that female candidates, like feminists, may advocate for policies which unfairly benefit women.…”

Section: Gender and Polling Inaccuraciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

I’m Not Voting for Her: Polling Discrepancies and Female Candidates

Stout

Kline

2010

Polit Behav

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Although there is a large literature on the predictive accuracy of preelection polls, there is virtually no systematic research examining the role that a candidate's gender plays in polling accuracy. This is a surprising omission given the precipitous growth of female candidates in recent years. Looking at Senate and Gubernatorial candidates from 1989 to 2008 (more than 200 elections in over 40 states), we analyze the accuracy of pre-election polls for almost the complete universe of female candidates and a matched sample of white male cases. We demonstrate that pre-election polls consistently underestimate support for female candidates when compared to white male candidates. Furthermore, our results indicate that this phenomenon-which we dub the Richards Effect, after Ann Richards of Texas-is more common in states which exhibit traits associated with culturally conservative views of gender issues.

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Voting Cues in Low-Information Elections: Candidate Gender as a Social Information Variable in Contemporary United States Elections

Cited by 433 publications

References 18 publications

It's the occupation, stupid! Explaining candidates' success in low-information elections

It's the occupation, stupid! Explaining candidates' success in low-information elections

Owning Immigration: Messenger Ethnicity, Issue Ownership, and Support for Latino Candidates

I’m Not Voting for Her: Polling Discrepancies and Female Candidates

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