Why Won't Lola Run? An Experiment Examining Stereotype Threat and Political Ambition

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (02) ◽  
pp. 232-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Pruysers ◽  
Julie Blais
Keyword(s):  
Stereotype Threat ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Political Behavior ◽  
Women In Politics ◽  
Political Ambition ◽  
Negative Stereotypes ◽  
Psychology Literature ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Attitudes And Behavior

Among the most well-documented and long-standing gender gaps in political behavior are those relating to political ambition, as men have consistently been shown to express a significantly higher level of political ambition than women. Although this gap is well established, the reasons for the differences between men and women remain largely unknown. One possible explanation is that negative stereotypes about women's political ability are responsible. Stereotype threat, as it is referred to in the psychology literature, is a phenomenon where individuals of a social group suffer cognitive burdens and anxiety after being exposed to negative stereotypes that relate to their identity. These disruptions have been shown to alter attitudes and behavior. In order to test this possibility, we employed an experimental design whereby we randomly assigned 501 undergraduate students into threat and nonthreat conditions. While men exhibited higher levels of political ambition in both conditions, women in the nonthreat condition expressed significantly higher levels of political ambition than those women who were exposed to negative stereotypes. The results of this study therefore suggest that the gender gap in political ambition may be partly explained by negative stereotypes about women in politics.

Political Behavior of Sexual and Gender Minorities

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Royal G. Cravens
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Orientation ◽  
Gender Identity ◽  
Political Behavior ◽  
The Political ◽  
Sexual And Gender Minorities ◽  
Political Research ◽  
Gender Minorities ◽  
And Gender ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Attitudes And Behavior

From the late 20th and into the early 21st centuries, scholars in the field of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) politics have produced a substantial body of literature that explores and explains the political attitudes and behavior of sexual and gender minorities. The interdisciplinary nature of the field is reflected in the broad range of approaches and theories that attempt to explain political phenomena among LGBTQ people. The majority of the literature reveals sexual minorities to be politically distinct from heterosexuals, in that sexual minorities are more ideologically liberal and, in the United States, more likely to support Democratic partisans. Largely because of heterosexism, sexual and gender minorities are also more likely to participate in political activities that directly implicate their sexual orientation or gender identity, such as volunteering with LGBTQ interest groups or attending “Pride” events, although sexual orientation and gender identity are significant predictors of a variety of attitudes and behavior. Recent research has demonstrated that LGBTQ people also participate in politics by running for office, mounting legal challenges to discriminatory laws or government actions, and collectively organizing locally, nationally, and internationally. Explanations for LGBTQ political distinctiveness have concentrated in three broad areas: selection, embeddedness, and conversion theories. While studies have provided supportive evidence for each hypothesis, the field has also increasingly turned to intersectional evaluations that admonish researchers to interrogate intragroup LGBTQ behavioral and attitudinal heterogeneity more fully. The infusion of intersectional theory into LGBTQ political research has revealed attitudinal and behavioral distinctions among sexual and gender minorities centered on axes of race and ethnicity, nationality, religion, age, and income, among others. The critical importance of disentangling the concepts of sexual orientation and gender identity, the recognition of cross-cutting structures of oppression such as homophobia, sexism, and racism, and the emergence of subfields of LGBTQ political behavior are indicative of a burgeoning field of study. Looking to the future of LGBTQ political research, the political successes of the LGBTQ movement and evolving conceptions of sexual and gender identity have necessitated a reevaluation of LGBTQ political behavior in the 21st century. The continued diffusion of same-sex marriage, the electoral capture of LGBTQ voters, and the destabilization of identity categories that has been demanded by queer theory all pose unique challenges to the future of LGBTQ politics and political mobilization around the globe.

Comparative Opportunities

2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 420-432 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua A. Tucker
Keyword(s):  
Political Behavior ◽  
Comparative Studies ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Distinct Region ◽  
East Central ◽  
Central European ◽  
East European ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Attitudes And Behavior ◽  
East Central European

As the theoretical rationale (and funding opportunities!) for considering Eastern Europe as a distinct region diminish as we move farther away from the momentous events of 1989, the value of including East-Central European countries in comparative studies has only increased. This article outlines how comparative studies of political behavior involving East-Central European countries have evolved in the author’s own research from comparative studies including Russia along with four East European countries, to more broadly based comparative studies including multiple East European countries and former Soviet Republics, to studies where behavior is analyzed in both East European countries and more established democracies, and finally to large cross-national studies focused on questions related to post-communist politics (namely, the legacy of communism on post-communist attitudes and behavior) but relying on the comparative analysis of survey data from countries around the world. In a way, the research has come full circle, from studies of East European political behavior to better understand East European political behavior, to studies including East European countries to better understand general questions of political behavior not specific to post-communist countries, to now the most extensive comparative studies that are, however, designed once again to better understand East European political attitudes and behavior.

scholarly journals Bad Times and the Political Behavior of Older African-Americans

1994 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 43-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven A. Peterson ◽  
Albert Somit
Keyword(s):  
African Americans ◽  
Political Behavior ◽  
Political Attitudes ◽  
Life Experiences ◽  
Traumatic Events ◽  
The Political ◽  
Older African Americans ◽  
Unexpected Findings ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Attitudes And Behavior

This essay explores the effects o f two specific life experiences upon the political attitudes and behavior of older African-Americans as compared with younger African-Americans. The findings that emerge are generally opposite what theory would predict. Poorer health and experiencing traumatic events seem to increase, by direct and indirect routes, the likelihood of African-Americans becoming more active in politics. Possible explanations for the unexpected findings are discussed.

Party Identification and Its Implications

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Russell J. Dalton
Keyword(s):  
Political Behavior ◽  
Party Identification ◽  
The United States ◽  
Limited Information ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Average Person ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Attitudes And Behavior ◽  
Cross National

Early electoral research in the United States discovered the most important concept in the study of political behavior: party identification. Party identification is a long-term, affective attachment to one’s preferred political party. Cross-national research finds that these party identities are a potent cue in guiding the attitudes and behavior of the average person. Partisans tend to repeatedly support their preferred party, even when the candidates and the issues change. Party ties mobilize people to vote to support their party, and to work for the party during the campaign. And given the limited information most people have about complex political issues, party ties provide a cue to what positions one should support. The levels of partisanship among contemporary publics, and how it varies across nations and across time, are described. The implications of these patterns, and the current research debates on the significance of partisanship for democracies today, are discussed.

Personality and Political Behavior

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Cawvey ◽  
Matthew Hayes ◽  
Damarys Canache ◽  
Jeffery J. Mondak
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits ◽  
Big Five ◽  
Political Behavior ◽  
Political Attitudes ◽  
Contextual Factors ◽  
Openness To Experience ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Attitudes And Behavior ◽  
Over Time

“Personality” refers to a multifaceted and enduring internal, or psychological, structure that influences patterns in a person’s actions and expressed attitudes. Researchers have associated personality with such attributes as temperament and values, but most scholarly attention has centered on individual differences in traits, or general behavioral and attitudinal tendencies. The focus on traits was reinvigorated with the rise of the Big Five personality framework in the 1980s and 1990s, when cross-cultural evidence pointed to the existence of the dimensions of openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and emotional stability. Studies have found these five trait dimensions to be highly heritable and stable over time, leading researchers to argue that the Big Five exert a causal impact on attitudes and behavior. The stability of traits also contrasts with more dynamic individual-level characteristics such as mood or with contextual factors in a person’s environment. Explanations of human decision-making, therefore, would be incomplete without attention to personality traits. With these considerations in mind, political scientists have devoted an increasing amount of attention to the study of personality and citizen attitudes and behavior. The goal of this research program is not to claim that personality traits offer the only explanation for why some citizens fulfill the basic duties of citizenship, such as staying informed and turning out to vote, and others do not. Instead, scholars have studied personality in order to understand why individuals in the same economic and political environment differ in their political attitudes and actions. And accounting for the consistent influence of personality can illuminate the magnitude of environmental factors and other individual-level attributes that do shift over time. Research on personality and political behavior has explored several substantive topics, including political information, attitudes, and participation. Major findings in this burgeoning literature include the following: (1) politically interested and knowledgeable citizens tend to exhibit high levels of openness to experience, (2) ideological liberalism is more prevalent among individuals high in openness and low in conscientiousness, and (3) citizens are more likely to participate in politics if they are high in openness and extraversion. Although the personality and politics literature has shown tremendous progress in recent years, additional work remains to be done to produce comprehensive explanations of political behavior. Studies currently focus on the direct impact of traits on political attitudes and actions, but personality also could work through other individual-level attitudes and characteristics to influence behavior. In addition, trait effects may occur only in response to certain attitudes or contextual factors. Instead of assuming that personality operates in isolation from other predictors of political behavior, scholars can build on past studies by mapping out and testing interrelationships between psychological traits and the many other factors thought to influence how and how well citizens engage the world of politics.

THE LONG-TERM EFFECTS OF STATE REPRESSION ON POLITICAL BEHAVIOR AND ATTITUDES: EVIDENCE FROM TAIWAN

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Fang-Yi Chiou ◽  
Ji Yeon Hong
Keyword(s):  
Political Behavior ◽  
Mainland China ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
State Repression ◽  
Presidential Candidates ◽  
Long Run ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Attitudes And Behavior ◽  
Ruling Party

Abstract This article examines how violence against citizens affects their political attitudes and behavior in the long run, and how those effects vary over time. We construct and analyze a novel dataset on the victims of Taiwan's February 28 Incident, in 1947, with survey data spanning 1990 to 2017. Our empirical analysis shows that cohorts having directly or indirectly experienced the Incident are less likely to support the Kuomintang Party (KMT), the former authoritarian ruling party responsible for the Incident. They tend to disagree with the key conventional policy stand of the KMT (unification with mainland China), are more likely to self-identify as Taiwanese, and are less likely to vote for KMT presidential candidates. Taiwan's residents who were born in towns with larger number of casualties during the Incident are more likely to reject unification. Finally, the effects are found to vary over the period following democratization.

Religious Preference, Practice, and Personal Sexual Attitudes and Behavior

1970 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 835-841 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia B. Sutker ◽  
Louis W. Sutker ◽  
Dean G. Kilpatrick
Keyword(s):  
College Women ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Church Attendance ◽  
Sexual Attitudes ◽  
Religious Affiliation ◽  
College Men ◽  
Sexual Attitude ◽  
Religious Preference ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Attitudes And Behavior

This study was conducted to investigate the influence of religious affiliation and religiosity upon reported sexual attitudes and behavior in the South. A Sexual Attitude Survey (SAS) was administered to 509 undergraduate students, divided into Catholics, Protestants, Jews, and nonbelievers and further classified by frequency of monthly church attendance. Results indicated that college men are more sexually liberal than college women regardless of religious preference or religiosity, that sexual liberality decreases with increased frequency of church attendance, and that in general nonbelievers report more liberal sexual attitudes and behavior than Catholics, Protestants, and Jews.

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