Gender, Civility, and Voting Intent: Image-Attack Political

Advertising and Mobilization by Gender

A Study by Michelle Carpenter, Therese Smith, and Jacky Cao

Lit Review/Setting• First political attack ads – 1964

• Since then, researchers have been interested in the different variables that influence effectiveness of the ads.

• Many studies focused on gender as it pertains to the ad sponsor or target.

• We wanted to understand how the gender of the viewer could influence the perceptions and effects of the ad.

Rationale & Thesis

H1: Men will be disproportionately affected by a negativity bias after viewing an uncivil political advertisement, and will therefore report a voting intention at a higher rate against the target of the uncivil political ad as compared to women.

H2: Men will report a disproportionately higher voting intention after viewing a negative political ad as compared to women.

MethodsWe conducted a short experimental survey using randomized treatment with a civil or uncivil political advertisement.

The sample breakdown is as follows:• Males: 34/67 (50.7%)• Females: 32/67 (47.8%)• One participant did not disclose gender.

Stimulus breakdown by gender:• Among Males: 41.2% viewed the civil ad,

58.8% viewed the uncivil ad• Among Females: 43.8% viewed the civil ad,

56.3% viewed

the uncivil ad

Ways to MeasureWe operationalized constructs for accuracy by asking multi-part questions and averaging the responses, then generalizing to a scale.

For example, voting intention:We presented 4 circumstances which could make the act of voting easy or difficult and asked respondents to indicate their voting intention (1 is very likely, 5 is very unlikely.) Then we average the responses together and rank them as follows:

Average < 2 (Very Likely)

2 < Average < 3 (Somewhat Likely)

3 < Average < 4 (Somewhat Unlikely)

4 < Average < 5 (Very Unlikely)

ResultsGeneral Findings

• 22.4% of respondents identified as independent on the political spectrum, which was particularly prevalent among respondents ages 18-24 (30% within the group.)

• Overall, women report high voting intention 56% of the time and low voting intention 44% of the time.

• This compares to a reported male high voting intention of 70% and a low reported overall voting intention of 30%.

Men who viewed the uncivil attack ad:

• 60% report a very high voting intention after treatment with the uncivil ad.

• To put this in perspective, 43% of men who received the civil ad treatment report a very high voting intention.

Women who viewed the uncivil attack ad:

• 28% report a very high voting intention after treatment with the uncivil ad.

• To put this in perspective, 21% of women who received the civil ad treatment report a very high voting intention.