TY - JOUR
T1 - The Effects of Gender Cues and Political Sophistication on Candidate Evaluation
T2 - A Comparison of Self-Report and Eye Movement Measures of Stereotyping
AU - Coronel, Jason C.
AU - Federmeier, Kara D.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015, © The Author(s) 2015.
PY - 2016/10/1
Y1 - 2016/10/1
N2 - Gender-based political stereotypes pervade the media environment in the United States, and this may cause voters to automatically activate these stereotypes while evaluating politicians. In the research reported here, we investigate whether voters are able to reduce the automatic activation of unwanted stereotypes and how political sophistication influences this capacity. The current experiment uses self-reports to measure controlled stereotyping, and we develop a new eye movement metric to measure automatic stereotyping. We find that political sophisticates are more effective than novices at reducing unwanted gender-based political stereotypes. This study has two main implications for communication research. First, the results suggest that the effects of gender-based automatic stereotyping—induced by the information environment—on political judgments may not be as powerful as some of the current literature portrays them to be. Second, this study adds eye movements to the arsenal of tools available to communication scholars interested in measuring covert forms of stereotyping.
AB - Gender-based political stereotypes pervade the media environment in the United States, and this may cause voters to automatically activate these stereotypes while evaluating politicians. In the research reported here, we investigate whether voters are able to reduce the automatic activation of unwanted stereotypes and how political sophistication influences this capacity. The current experiment uses self-reports to measure controlled stereotyping, and we develop a new eye movement metric to measure automatic stereotyping. We find that political sophisticates are more effective than novices at reducing unwanted gender-based political stereotypes. This study has two main implications for communication research. First, the results suggest that the effects of gender-based automatic stereotyping—induced by the information environment—on political judgments may not be as powerful as some of the current literature portrays them to be. Second, this study adds eye movements to the arsenal of tools available to communication scholars interested in measuring covert forms of stereotyping.
KW - automatic stereotyping
KW - eye movements
KW - media gender stereotypes
KW - political sophistication
KW - stereotype inhibition
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84988023617&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84988023617&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0093650215604024
DO - 10.1177/0093650215604024
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84988023617
SN - 0093-6502
VL - 43
SP - 922
EP - 944
JO - Communication Research
JF - Communication Research
IS - 7
ER -