What’s in a name? An experimental test of marital name change on perceptions of female political candidates

Abstract

ABSTRACT Stereotypes about female candidates can affect voters’ perceptions, particularly when candidates violate gender role norms. We focus on a potentially important but overlooked characteristic: whether a woman keeps her last name after getting married. Using a survey experiment that asked respondents to assess candidates who did and did not have the same last name as their husband, we find that this decision has no overall effect on electability or the perception of a candidate’s characteristics. However, our results show a number of conditional effects. Most notably, males with less education rate candidates who kept their names as less honest, less ethical, less caring, and less intelligent than those who make the more traditional choice.