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Fields Changed

Registration

Field Before After
Trial Status in_development completed
Last Published October 26, 2020 08:19 AM October 23, 2024 04:38 PM
Study Withdrawn No
Intervention Completion Date October 27, 2020
Data Collection Complete Yes
Final Sample Size: Number of Clusters (Unit of Randomization) 436 respondents
Was attrition correlated with treatment status? No
Final Sample Size: Total Number of Observations 43,164 experimental elections.
Is there a restricted access data set available on request? No
Program Files No
Data Collection Completion Date October 27, 2020
Is data available for public use? No
Keyword(s) Electoral, Gender Electoral, Gender
Building on Existing Work No
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Papers

Field Before After
Paper Abstract Women are severely underrepresented in American politics, especially among Republicans. This underrepresentation may result from women being less willing to run for office, from voter bias against women, or from political structures that make it more difficult for women to compete. Here we show how support for female candidates varies by voters’ party affiliation and gender. We conducted experimental elections in which participants made their vote choices based solely on politicians’ faces. When choosing between female and male candidates, Democrats, and especially Democratic women, preferred female candidates, while Republicans were equally likely to choose female and male candidates. These patterns held after controlling for respondents’ education, age, and political knowledge, and for candidates’ age, attractiveness, and perceived conservatism. Our findings suggest that voter bias against women cannot explain women’s underrepresentation. On the contrary, American voters appear ready to further narrow the gender gap in politics.
Paper Citation Poutvaara, Panu and Graefe, Andreas. (2024). Do Americans Favor Female or Male Politicians? Evidence from Experimental Elections. CESifo Working Paper No. 11414.
Paper URL https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp11414.pdf
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