Sincere or Pandering: How Citizens Form Perceptions of Pandering

• In Event: Perceived Representation and Support for Democracy

Abstract

Citizens in the United States, and especially people of color, have been growing more distrustful of the government over the past several decades. This trend has contributed toward the belief that politicians pander to certain groups or are insincere about wanting to represent their interests. In the most recent presidential election, many personalities in the media accused Beto O'Rourke of pandering to Latinos for speaking Spanish on the debate stage. O'Rourke's repeated use of Spanish at home in El Paso, Texas and in other avenues, in addition to his repeated verbal desire to represent Latino interests suggests that the appeal was made with sincerity. Despite this rise in the belief that politicians pander, relatively little research has been done to understand how or why these beliefs are formed. This paper aims to fill this gap by developing a theoretical framework to understand how voters identify candidate pandering. Specifically, I ask how knowledge of the candidate making the appeal and the quality of the appeal being made helps shape perceptions of pandering. To begin testing this I ran an experiment in October 2020 where Hispanics in the US were exposed to either a White or Hispanic candidate making an appeal in either English or English and Spanish. These results indicated that candidates that make Spanish appeals in poor Spanish are seen as pandering by Hispanics. This suggests that perceptions of pandering are formed based on multiple pieces of information including the candidate's racial/ethnic group, the individual's racial/ethnic group, and the quality of the candidate's appeal. I plan to collect additional data to further explore these trends and build a greater understanding of how these factors matter for other groups. Given the decline of trust in the government, it is important to study how politicians can convey their sincerity to the groups they are appealing to. Through this we can begin to understand one pathway to increasing trust in the government.

Author

• Marques Zarate, Rice University