Implicit Gender Stereotypes
In the Mo article researches implicit/explicit gender attitudes as well as the effect candidate quality can have in them. The article centers around the question “How much does a voter’s attitude towards female versus male leadership manifest itself at the ballot box and when does information regarding candidate qualifications or the lack thereof matter in this relationship?” Previous studies such as Steinem (2008) as well as the drastic underrepresentation of women in politics implies that gender is “probably the most restricting force in American life” (Steinem 2008), going as far to affect American Politics. The author decides to test this using the IAT (Implicit Attitudes Test) due to dual process theories of mind as well as to remove social desirability bias.
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The article has two hypotheses, which are 1) “Explicit and implicit gender attitudes are non-redundant predictors of vote choice.
All else equal, more negative explicit and implicit gender attitudes will make voters less likely to vote for a female candidate” and 2) “Implicit gender attitudes can be overridden in light of clearer cues on candidate quality. Specifically, the influence of implicit gender attitudes on vote choice will diminish among those who are explicitly gender-neutral or egalitarian.” The researcher tested their theories in four ways: “(1) survey of explicit attitudes towards women as leaders; (2) vote choice experiment; (3) the Implicit Association Test (IAT) measuring implicit attitudes towards women as leaders; and (4) survey of demographic questions”. The results find that “those who explicitly preferred male leaders generated IAT scores that were higher than those respondents who stated egalitarian ideals or preferred female leaders”. The results also supported dual process theories of mind, suggesting “explicit and implicit attitudes are related but reflect two distinct cognitive
processes”. For further studies, I would like to explore how race could interfere with these gender effects. In what ways would these two factors interact with each other? Do gender attitudes differ between races? Do racial attitudes differ between gender? I think it would be really interesting to test if there was any consistent support that race was more detrimental than gender or vice versa.
The article has two hypotheses, which are 1) “Explicit and implicit gender attitudes are non-redundant predictors of vote choice.
All else equal, more negative explicit and implicit gender attitudes will make voters less likely to vote for a female candidate” and 2) “Implicit gender attitudes can be overridden in light of clearer cues on candidate quality. Specifically, the influence of implicit gender attitudes on vote choice will diminish among those who are explicitly gender-neutral or egalitarian.” The researcher tested their theories in four ways: “(1) survey of explicit attitudes towards women as leaders; (2) vote choice experiment; (3) the Implicit Association Test (IAT) measuring implicit attitudes towards women as leaders; and (4) survey of demographic questions”. The results find that “those who explicitly preferred male leaders generated IAT scores that were higher than those respondents who stated egalitarian ideals or preferred female leaders”. The results also supported dual process theories of mind, suggesting “explicit and implicit attitudes are related but reflect two distinct cognitive
processes”. For further studies, I would like to explore how race could interfere with these gender effects. In what ways would these two factors interact with each other? Do gender attitudes differ between races? Do racial attitudes differ between gender? I think it would be really interesting to test if there was any consistent support that race was more detrimental than gender or vice versa.