Media Discrimination and Gender Differences in Political Ambition in a Laboratory Experiment

• Author: Amanda Haraldsson
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/10659129211046890
• Published date: 01 December 2022
• Date: 01 December 2022

Article

PoliticalResearchQuarterly

2022,Vol.75(4)1158–1172

©TheAuthor(s)2021

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DOI:10.1177/10659129211046890

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MediaDiscriminationandGender

DifferencesinPoliticalAmbitionina

LaboratoryExperiment

AmandaHaraldsson

1

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Abstract

Verylittleresearchhasconsideredhowmediadiscriminationcouldimpactmenandwomen’spoliticalambition.Yet,media

discriminationcouldimpactbothbeliefsaboutgenderrolesandpoliticalcompetence,andbeliefsaboutvoterbias,bothof

whichcoulddecreasewomen’spoliticalambitionandincreasemen’s.Alternatively,mediadiscriminationcouldleadwomen

toreactagainstdiscriminationandbemotivatedpolitically.Thisstudytestshowpoliticalambitionofmenandwomenis

impactedbymediadiscriminationinacampaignandelectionlabexperiment.Mediadiscriminationinthisexperimentunder-

reportsonwomenandusestraditional,stereotypicaldepictionsofmenandwomen.Theresultssuggestthatincertain

conditions,mediadiscriminationinpoliticalnewsmayleadtoareactanceorpositivechallengeeffectforwomen,increasing

theirpoliticalambition.Men,instead,mayfeelanaversiontoenteringpolitics,loweringtheirpoliticalambition.

Keywords

politicalambition,mediadiscrimination,laboratoryexperiment,genderdifference,reactanceeffect

Introduction

Womeninpoliticsareoftenshownviaagenderedlensin

media;forexample,femalepoliticiansareunderreported

onandaremorelikelytohavetheirpoliticalabilities

questioned(VanderPasandAaldering2020).Some

literaturesuggeststhisgenderedcoveragewillimpact

howvotersevaluatewomeninpoliticsandtherefore

decreasethedemandforfemalepoliticians(Bauer2015;

HeldmanandWade2011;Kahn1992).Theresultsare

ambiguousasotherstudiesfinddemandisnotimpacted

bymedia(Dolan2014;Hayes2011).Yet,almostno

studieshaveconsideredwhethermediadepictionof

womencouldimpactthesupplysideofwomen’spolitical

representation.

Itiswellestablishedthatagendergapinpolitical

ambitionisonesignificantcauseofwomen’slowerpo-

liticalrepresentation(KanthakandWoon2015;Lawless

andFox2010;Moore2005).Politicalambitionrefersto

theinitialinterestanindividualhasinpursuingapolitical

career(nascentpoliticalambition),whichmayormaynot

eventuallyleadtotakingstepstoenterpoliticalcompe-

tition(expressivepoliticalambition)(LawlessandFox

2010).Theideathatwomen’slowerpoliticalambition

comparedtomen’siscausedbytheirowndeficienciesin

confidenceorskillshasbeenrecentlycriticisedasa

misinterpretationofthepoliticalambitiongendergap

(Piscopo2019).Followingthislineofthinking,thisstudy

investigateswhetherthereisaninfluenceofmediadis-

criminationonmenandwomen’spoliticalambition,

whichcouldimpactthegendergap.Mediadiscrimination

isheredefinedastheunequalmediadepictionofindi-

vidualsbasedon(perceived)groupbelonging.

Somepoliticalambitionexpertshavesuggestedthat

media’sdepictionofwomencouldplayaroleinthe

gendergapinpoliticalambition(Lawless2009;Pruysers

andBlais2017),butonlyonestudyhastestedthisre-

lationshipdirectly:Pruysers,ThomasandBlais(2020)

testhowgenderedmediacoverageimpactsmenand

women’spoliticalambitioninanonlineexperiment,

findingthatexposuretomediathatsexualisesfemale

candidatesorover-emphasisesfemalecandidates’family

roledoesnotimpactwomen’spoliticalambition,but

1

DepartmentofPoliticalandSocialSciences,EuropeanUniversity

Institute,Fiesole,FI,Italy

CorrespondingAuthor:

AmandaHaraldsson,DepartmentofPoliticalandSocialSciences,

EuropeanUniversityInstitute,ViadellaBadiadeiRoccettini,9,Fiesole,

50014FI,Italy.

Email:amanda.haraldsson@eui.eu