Gender stereotypes as a double-edged sword in political advertising

Abstract

Today, more women are seeking public office in elections at all levels. Studies have thus drawn attention to the use of political advertising by female candidates. In the current research, we explore the persuasion effects of gender stereotypes. Gender stereotypes are proposed to be either an asset or a liability depending on the particulars of campaign theme and advertising style. Through two experiments (with samples of 281 and 270 eligible voters, respectively), participants made inferences about unfamiliar candidates based on stimuli manipulated in the ad. Campaign theme was manipulated in the contexts of candidates’ gendered personality traits and issue domain. Administration of the experiments was performed via a shopping mall intercept method. The experimental results indicated that congruity between candidate gender and campaign theme would enhance a positive political ad. Female candidates showing ‘feminine’ traits, or focusing on ‘soft’ issues, could encourage voters’ favourable evaluations and increase their voting intention. Conversely, it was more advantageous for men to campaign with a focus on ‘masculine’ traits or ‘hard’ issues. However, when resorting to an attack ad, the opposite patterns held true: i.e. complementarity between candidate gender and campaign theme enhanced persuasion in advertising. This study concludes by discussing political advertising strategies for female candidates in a seemingly male-dominated political sphere.