An eye tracking study of gender biased information acquisition in candidate evaluation

2024/10/02 by Libby Jenke · 1 voice · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Gender Diversity and Inequality #Gender Politics and Representation

paper · doi:10.1111/pops.13031

openalex publication_date 2024/10/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/14

Abstract

Abstract Gender stereotypes may impact voters' candidate choices. But do gender stereotypes impact voters' attention when learning about candidates? This paper explores whether citizens take part in gender biased information acquisition when learning about women and men candidates. In an experiment, I use eye tracking to measure respondents' attention to gender stereotype‐consistent and inconsistent information. The results indicate that citizens do not differ in their attention to different candidate information according to candidate gender. Additionally, respondents' own sex does not make a difference in their attention to masculine‐ and feminine‐stereotyped information for women or men candidates. These findings provide an important specification of the mechanism behind gender bias in candidate choices: the bias appears to be different standards of judgment for candidates of different genders, not different compositions of information being judged for candidates of different genders.

Citations

• Gender Stereotypes, Information Search, and Voting Behavior in Political Campaigns
• Attention and choice: A review on eye movements in decision making
• Is Sexism for White People? Gender Stereotypes, Race, and the 2016 Presidential Election
• The Contingent Effects of Candidate Sex on Voter Choice
• Gender Stereotyping and the Electoral Success of Women Candidates: New Evidence from Local Elections in the United States
• Advances In Experimental Social Psychology
• Gender as a Factor in the Attribution of Leadership Traits
• Women, War, and Winning Elections: Gender Stereotyping in the Post-September 11th Era
• Using Eye-Tracking to Understand Decision-Making in Conjoint Experiments

Cited by

• Attention and Political Choice: A Foundation for Eye Tracking in Political Science

Discussions

• Does gender bias shape what voters learn about candidates? Libby Jenke's eye-tracking study in our June issue found attention doesn't differ by candidate gender. Read online for more on what this mean [bsky, 3 points, 0 comments]

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