Image Repair and Judging a Politician’s Racially Insensitive Statements: Does Gender Matter?

• In Event: ICA Interactive Paper/Poster Session I
  In Interactive Poster Session: Public Relations Interactive Poster Session

Abstract

This experimental mixed-methods study (N=267) examines the role of a politician’s responses to media criticism that she tweeted something racially insensitive. We hypothesized that gendered self-construals and colorblind responses would lead to different evaluations of image repair crisis responses by gender. We found female participants rated such tweets as more controversial (p < .001, r = .23) and inappropriate (p < .01) than did males. In examining participant evaluation of response strategies, females evaluated the response strategy using colorblind ideology (defiance) as a less appropriate defense than did men (p < .001). Even though a defiance response is relatively effective for men, there are ethical and societal considerations for its use. The potential implications for crisis experts using a defiance response include silencing voices in intergroup relations, as well as pushing societal boundaries for what is acceptable “talk” concerning racial and ethnic differences.

Authors

• Maria E. Len-Rios, The U of Georgia

• Hyoyeun Jun, University of Georgia