Sexual Harassment and Candidate Evaluation

• In Event: Determinants of Electoral Choice and Behavior

Abstract

This paper reports on results from a survey experiment designed to assess the extent to which allegations and evidence of sexual harassment of women by a male candidate for the U.S. Senate influence candidate evaluation and voting behavior. The heterogeneous effects hypothesis is based in group membership, where female voters in the treatment group who received information about the harassment allegations judge the accused candidate more negatively than both women voters in the control group (who received no additional information about the candidate) and the in the placebo group (who received negative information about the candidate’s unpaid parking tickets and traffic moving violations), as well as more harshly than male voters in the treatment and placebo groups. Party identification of the subject is also analyzed to determine the extent to which this group membership attenuates negative evaluations when the candidate’s party is matched to that of the respondent, as well as and in comparison to evaluations of a candidate from the opposing party. Individuals who identify as independents are analyzed separately.

Authors

• Jane Y. Junn, University of Southern California

• Natalie Masuoka, University of California, Los Angeles