The Curse of the Iron Lady: The Gender Dynamics of Negative Campaigning

• In Event: Election Campaign Strategies

Abstract

Conventional wisdom expects women to campaign more positively and face harsher electoral punishments when going negative. Yet, empirical evidence supporting this narrative is surprisingly inconclusive and lacks a comparative focus. We present a multi-study investigation that triangulates large-scale comparative data about national election worldwide covering 500+ candidates, a collection of post-election survey on probabilistic samples of voters (CSES data), and new experimental evidence with US respondents (pre-registered). Across three studies, a clear trend emerges: female candidates are punished when they go negative, whereas male candidates are not. Male and female candidates campaign similarly, but they do not reap the same electoral rewards. Women are punished for using harsher campaigns – especially in countries that are less sympathetic towards feminine political careers; voters clearly declare disliking women when they go negative – but not men. Furthermore, female candidates are punished when they go positive on traditionally masculine topics.

Authors

• Alessandro Nai, University of Amsterdam

• Chiara Valli, University of Bern

• Juergen Maier, University of Koblenz-Landau