Abstract
Many studies have highlighted the role of gender stereotypes in impressions of politicians. In general, a politician’s image benefits from behaving consistently within gender stereotypes. The present study tested whether this also applied to different image restoration tactics employed by male versus female politicians after a scandal. We assessed participants’ evaluation of a fictitious male or female politician soon after a scandal and then after his or her defence. We used a 3 × 2 experimental design to compare the effectiveness of three defensive tactics involving different degrees of assertiveness vs. submissiveness as a function of a politician’s gender. All tactics were overall effective in improving the damaged reputation of the fictitious politician but, as expected, using the excuse of mitigating circumstances (submissive) was more beneficial to female politicians while diffusing responsibility by accusing another person (assertive) was more beneficial to male politicians, both in terms of global attitude and stereotypical evaluations (communality and agency, respectively). The tactic of mortification and requests for forgiveness did not have different effects by gender. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Highlights
Many studies have highlighted the role of gender stereotypes in impressions of politicians
Some studies in which the gender of a fictitious politician was manipulated have found that transgressive women and men are evaluated differently, though evidence in this regard is mixed
We found only one study directly comparing the efficacy of different communication strategies for a woman vs. a man after a political scandal
Summary
Many studies have highlighted the role of gender stereotypes in impressions of politicians. Women may have suffered greater consequences for wrongdoing when they violated gender norms (Courtemanche & Connor Green 2020) Another crucial factor influencing how and to what extent a scandal will end a political career is the politician’s ability to communicate a plausible and justifying interpretation of the event to the public (Bull & Fetzer 2010). While most empirical studies to date have focused on the comparative efficacy of these strategies, less attention has been paid to their relative efficacy in relation to the gender of a politician This possibility merits consideration, because the effects of gender stereotypes in politics are well documented. The present study aims to verify whether gender stereotypes influence voters’ evaluation of female versus male politicians as a function of the communication strategy s/he employs to limit the reputational damage of being involved in a scandal
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