Age‐related differences when measuring political hypocrisy

• Published date: 01 November 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1707
• Date: 01 November 2018

ACADEMIC PAPER

Age‐related differences when measuring political hypocrisy

M. Irene Prete

1

|Gianluigi Guido

1

|Marco Pichierri

2

|Phil Harris

3

1

Department of Management and Economics,

University of Salento, Palazzo Ecotekne, Via

per Monteroni, Lecce, Italy

2

Department of Management, Alma Mater

Studiorum, University of Bologna, Via Capo di

Lucca, Bologna 34 40126, Italy

3

Business Research Institute (BRI),

Westminster Chair of Marketing, University of

Chester, Riverside Innovation Centre, Castle

Drive, Chester CH1 1SL, UK

Correspondence

M. Irene Prete, Department of Management

and Economics, University of Salento, Palazzo

Ecotekne, Via per Monteroni, Lecce 73100,

Italy.

Email: mariairene.prete@unisalento.it

This article aims to develop a scale for measuring political hypocrisy (conceptualized as

the inconsistency between values publicly expressed by politicians and the behavior

they actually demonstrate) and to explore the role of age in voters' perceptions of

politicians' hypocrisy, analyzing if citizens belonging to different age groups may iden-

tify politicians' hypocrisy with a different detail. Results show that the 19‐item scale of

political hypocrisy—composed of three dimensions, called “ambiguity,”“slyness,”and

“deceit”—has good psychometric properties, and that age‐related differences when

measuring political hypocrisy do exist (young voters show a greater awareness of

the hypocritical behavior held by politicians). Furthermore, results suggest that the

perception of political hypocrisy may vary according both to voters' political

orientation and voting intention.

1|INTRODUCTION

In recent years, most modern democracies have witnessed a massive

decrease in voters' turnout (Cox, 2015; Leighley & Nagler, 2014), sig-

nals of political disengagement (Flinders, 2015), and a pervasive feeling

of generalized disillusion and alienation toward politics (Putnam, 2000).

For example, Hooghe and Kern (2016) analyzed trends in electoral

turnout for 20 stable democracies over a 62‐year period—between

1950 and 2012—covering 349 elections and showed that voters' turn-

out remained stable until 1980 and, after that time, declined.

According to literature, political disengagement is associated not

only with personal contextual factors related to voters' individualchar-

acteristics and attitudes toward politics but also with environmental

contextual factors linked to political institutions, the media, and espe-

cially, parties and politicians' actions. Frequently, people tend to

assume a politically disengaged behavior in consequence of perceived

dishonesty or ineffectiveness of their elected officials (Prete, Guido,

Harris, & Piper, 2015). Political scandals, highlighted in the daily press

(Brown, 2006), can explain voters' negative evaluation of candidates

(Bhatti, Hansen, & Olsen, 2013) and also a general feeling of distrust

toward politics (Bowler & Karp, 2004). Indeed, politicians often pri-

vately break behavioral rules that they have publicly sustained

(Lammers, Galinsky, & Stapel,2010), although avoiding to make some

of their deplorable behaviors known in order to achieve popular con-

sensus. When politicians' behavior shows inconsistency between what

they have previously promised and the actions they have actually per-

formed, voters could perceive them as “hypocrites.”Political hypocrisy

can be defined, therefore, as “the disparity between a political actor's

public avowals and actions”(Dovi, 2001, p. 11). Voters' perception of

political hypocrisy reflects how they judge politicians, and it can be a

factor capable of undermining their political engagement.

The present study has three objectives: (a) developing a scale for

measuring political hypocrisy, providing a concrete tool to evaluate

individuals' perception of politicians' behavior and its effects in terms

of political engagement; (b) describing the perception of politicians'

hypocrisy in different segments of citizens and, specifically, the role

of age in citizens' perceptions of their ruling class; and (c) examining

how a different perception of political hypocrisy can be related to

voters' political orientation and to their voting intention.

In the following sections, a conceptualization of political hypocrisy

and possible age‐related differences in the way individuals perceive it

are discussed. Then a measure for political hypocrisy is developed,

and differences in the perception of political hypocrisy among young,

middle‐aged, and elderly voters, and between right‐wing and left‐wing

voters are presented. Finally, theoretical and operational implications

are discussed.

2|POLITICAL HYPOCRISY

Moral hypocrisy is, in general, the desire to appear moral, although, if

possible, avoiding the cost of actually being so (Batson & Thompson,

2001). This “failing to practice what one preaches”(Furia, 2009,

p. 113) has become a notion commonly used by political observers,

Received: 20 February 2018 Accepted: 23 February 2018

DOI: 10.1002/pa.1707

J Public Affairs. 2018;18:e1707.

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1707

© 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa 1of8