How Sex Affects Perceptions of Aggression in Negative Campaign Advertising

HEATHER LEIGH The purpose of this study was to examine whether female political candidates are negatively evaluated when they violate gender role stereotypes. Participants re- LITTLETON ceived one campaign advertisement that focused solely on attacking the opponent and another advertisement that was tempered with positive statements about the BENJAMIN R. STEPHENS candidate; the candidates were either men or women. Participants then evaluated the candidate on aggressiveness and leadership effectiveness using a semantic Clemson University differential scale. No significant differences were found in the evaluation of the candidate’s leadership effectiveness based on sex. However, male candidates were rated as significantly more aggressive than female candidates in the assaultive advertisement condition (the advertisement that focused solely on attacking the opponent). One interpretation of this finding is female candidates were dissociated from the aggressive act.

N THE SURFACE, IT WOULD APPEAR THAT Another possible explanation is that gender role ste- attitudes toward women in politics have reotypes of women as less assertive and less effective Ochanged greatly since the 1970s. For ex- leaders are still coloring voters’ perception of female ample, one would not expect a survey conducted to- candidates (Trent & Sabourin, 1993). This explana- day to replicate that of Lee (1976), which found that tion is supported by Porter, Geis, and Jennings (1983) 47.9% of women did not like other women to run for who found that women were not identified as lead- political office and that 74.7% of women felt they ers in slides of discussion groups if a man was included would not be accepted by men if they ran for office. in the group. This result held true even if a woman In addition, one would not expect a replication of was seated at the head of the table (the traditional the Hedlund, Freeman, Hamm, and Stein (1979) leadership position). If gender role stereotypes of data, in which people were unwilling to vote for a women as less effective leaders are preventing them female candidate at all if she had young children. from ascending to leadership positions, then it would However, the current state of women in politics does follow that female candidates would need to expend not reflect the major attitude changes that we assume extra effort to establish themselves as possessing lead- have occurred in the last 15 years. For example, only ership characteristics. 13% of state legislators are women, and, at the cur- However, there is also the possibility that female rent rate of growth, women will not make up 50% of candidates who act aggressively to establish themselves Congress until the year 2582 (Whicker, Jewell, & as leaders are viewed negatively for not acting in ac- Duke, 1991). cordance with the gender role stereotype of women Several explanations have been put forth regard- as passive and nonaggressive. If this is the case, then ing this lack of progress. Kahn (1993) suggested that female candidates do not receive the same amount Author note. Benjamin R. Stephens, Department of Psychology; of media support as male candidates. Procter, Heather Leigh Littleton, Clemson University. Schenck-Hamlin, and Haase (1994) theorized that Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Benjamin R. Stephens, Department of Psychology, Clemson female candidates are less successful because they lack University, Clemson, SC 29634-1511. Electronic mail may be sent political funding and often have to face incumbents. to [email protected].

PSI CHI JOURNAL OF UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH Spring 1999 33 Copyright 1999 by Psi Chi, The National Honor Society in Psychology (Vol. 4, No. 1, 33–36 / ISSN 1089-4136). *Faculty Supervisor HOW SEX AFFECTS PERCEPTIONS Littleton and Stephens female candidates are performing a balancing act: employed when assessing a candidate’s aggressiveness trying to present themselves as feminine, but at the and leadership effectiveness, and to examine the con- same time as effective leaders. There is evidence that sequences for a candidate who does not comply with female candidates do indeed perform this type of gender role expectations. After reading a fictitious balancing act. One study of senatorial candidates advertisement used by a candidate, participants evalu- found that women focused their campaigns on social ated the candidate on several personality attributes issues, which are generally viewed as more feminine related to leadership effectiveness and aggressiveness. issues, whereas men focused their campaigns on eco- The advertisement followed one of the two formats nomic issues (Kahn, 1993). Further support for this described in the study by Trent and Sabourin (1993). balancing act can be found in the negative, or attack, The advertisement either focused strictly on attack- advertising of female candidates. Trent and Sabourin ing the opponent, an aggressive technique, or was (1993) found that the attack advertisements used by tempered with positive statements about the candi- female candidates utilized a mixed-content format; date, a less assaultive technique. If gender role ste- the negative advertising of female candidates began reotypes are employed when assessing a candidate, with negative statements about the opponent but then female candidates should be rated as less effec- concluded with positive statements about the candi- tive leaders and as more aggressive than male candidate. The negative advertisements of male candidates dates when they use the assaultive technique. Both focused solely on attacking the opponent. This mixed male and female candidates should be rated similarly content format utilized by female candidates can be when they use the mixed-format advertisement. viewed as an attempt by the candidate to appear assertive and qualified, but at the same time retaining Method feminine characteristics. The first half of the adver- Participants tisement is negative and aggressive whereas the sec- Forty undergraduate students from a large south- ond half of the advertisement focuses on the posi- eastern university volunteered to participate by sign- tive, and often feminine, aspects of the candidate. ing a posted sign-up sheet. Approximately half of the However, another such study of the negative ad- participants were women and half were men. The par- vertisements of male and female candidates con- ticipants were provided with a general description of ducted by Procter et al. (1994) rejects the notion that the study before participating and were debriefed con- female candidates are attempting to present them- cerning the actual purpose of the study following its selves as assertive, but not overly assertive, in their completion. All participants who arrived at the ap- advertising. This study found more similarities than pointed time agreed to participate. Most of these stu- differences in the negative advertisements of male dents received extra credit in their introductory psy- and female candidates on several criteria. Procter et chology course for participating. al. argue that those differences that do exist can be attributed to female candidates’ lack of funds and Materials status as challengers. That is to say, female candidates Two advertisements were constructed. Each ad- use the same technique that any candidate facing an vertisement was then modified such that it could con- incumbent and with few financial resources would clude with either an attack or mixed-tactic ending. utilize; they discuss several topics in their advertising The two versions of each advertisement are shown in to create the greatest impact with the advertising they the Appendix. The participants who received the as- use and focus on the weaknesses of the opponent. In saultive version of the first advertisement received the addition, Kahn (1993) found that male candidates mixed-tactic version of the second advertisement and were more likely to make positive appeals in their ad- vice versa. Likewise, the sex of the candidate in the vertising than female candidates, but also found that advertisements was varied among participants. Fol- male candidates were no more likely to make personal lowing each advertisement a 7-point semantic differ- attacks than female candidates. However, the same ential scale containing several personality dimensions study also found female candidates were more likely was administered. The dimensions included were: to attack an opponent’s policy than a male candidate. leader–follower, cold–warm, trustworthy–dishonest, Whereas research has been conducted examin- capable–incapable, unintelligent–intelligent, believ- ing the differences that exist between the political able–unbelievable, and aggressive–docile. The aggres- advertisements of male and female candidates, the sive–docile dimension was included to assess directly reasons these differences exist has not been exam- the perceived aggressiveness of the candidate. Scores ined experimentally. The goal of the present study on this dimension could range from 1 (most aggres- was to examine whether gender role stereotypes are sive) to 7 (least aggressive). The other dimensions as-

34 PSI CHI JOURNAL OF UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH Spring 1999 HOW SEX AFFECTS PERCEPTIONS Littleton and Stephens

sessed the perceived effectiveness of the candidate as sion scores in the mixed condition (advertisement a leader. Scores from these dimensions were summed tempered with positive statements). The mean effec- and could range from 7, the most favorable score, to tiveness score for male candidates was 20.60 (SD = 42, the least favorable score. To provide a manipula- 7.34) and the mean for female candidates was 19.75 tion check, participants were asked to indicate one (SD = 6.54). Female candidates were rated more fa- of three possible characterizations of the tactics used vorably, but this difference was not significant, t(38) in each advertisement. These characterizations were: = .387, p = .701. The mean aggression score for male attacking the opponent, praising the candidate, or both. candidates was 4.75 (SD = 1.48) and the mean for female candidates was 5.40 (SD = 1.47). Female can- Procedure didates were rated more aggressively, but this differ- Each participant was randomly assigned to one ence was not significant, t(38) = 1.395, p = .171. The of four conditions. In each condition, participants only significant difference found was between the received two advertisements, one that focused strictly aggression scores of males and females in the attack on attacking the opponent and one tempered with advertisement condition, in which male candidates positive statements about the candidate (mixed tac- were rated as significantly more aggressive than fe- tic). In the first two conditions, the advertisements male candidates. were for two candidates of the same sex, either two male candidates or two female candidates. In the final Discussion two conditions, one of the two advertisements was for Because the data for the mixed-tactic advertise- a male candidate and the other was for a female can- ment were in accordance with the experimental pre- didate. Although this arrangement does not consti- diction, the results partially supported the hypoth- tute a factorial design, comparisons can be made be- esis that female candidates would be negatively evalu- tween male and female candidates in the assaultive ated when acting aggressively and positively evaluated and mixed-tactic advertisement conditions. when using a less assaultive technique. Male and fe- Participants arrived to the testing room in groups male candidates were rated similarly on leadership of two to seven. They were read the following script effectiveness and aggressiveness. This result would be by the experimenter: expected because female candidates were acting in I am conducting a study on campaign advertise- accordance with gender role stereotypes, and so ments. You will receive a form that contains two would be evaluated more favorably. However, the re- advertisements for two different candidates. maining predictions proposed were not supported, Please read the advertisements carefully and answer the questions that follow. Your responses weakening this explanation for the findings in the will remain anonymous by being placed in an mixed-tactic condition. envelope. Relative to male candidates, female candidates The study took approximately 15 min to complete. were not evaluated negatively when they used assaultive advertising. This result is not consistent with the Results prediction that female candidates would be negatively In order to assess the effects of sex on aggressive- evaluated when they violated gender role stereotypes. ness and leadership effectiveness, the data from the Female candidates were also not seen as more aggres- attack and mixed advertisement types were assessed sive than male candidates in the assaultive advertise- separately. Independent a priori t tests were con- ment condition. Instead, male candidates were rated ducted to identify differences in the effectiveness and as significantly more aggressive than female candidates aggression scores in the attack condition (advertise- when they used assaultive advertisements. It would ment that focused on attacking the opponent). The appear from this result that the gender role stereo- mean effectiveness score for male candidates was types of men as aggressive and women as nonaggres- 24.90 (SD = 5.30) and the mean for female candidates sive are very strong because women are rated as less was 22.65 (SD = 4.22). The female candidates were aggressive than men even when performing an ag- rated more favorably, but this difference was not signi- gressive act. This result also indicates that the idea ficant, t(38) = 1.485, p = .146. The mean aggression that female candidates need to perform a balancing score for male candidates was 6.1 (SD = 0.91) and the act, trying to appear assertive, but not overly asser- mean for female candidates was 5.0 (SD = 1.41). Male tive, to avoid negative evaluation is incorrect. Instead, candidates were rated as significantly more aggres- female candidates need to act highly aggressive to be sive than female candidates, t(38) = 2.923, p = .006. viewed as aggressive as their male counterparts. A priori t tests were also conducted to identify However, the present results may be viewed and differences in the leadership effectiveness and aggres- interpreted from a different theoretical framework.

PSI CHI JOURNAL OF UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH Spring 1999 35 HOW SEX AFFECTS PERCEPTIONS Littleton and Stephens

Although participants were told that the candidate for female candidates structuring a political cam- was using the advertisement in his or her campaign, paign. It would appear that people have difﬁculty they were not told that the candidate had personally envisioning women performing aggressive acts. written the advertisement or even that the candidate Therefore, a female candidate could employ aggres- agreed with the views in the advertisement. There- sive elements in her campaign without suffering nega- fore, there is the possibility that the female candidate tive evaluation. However, it remains to be seen if the using the assaultive advertisement set up a state of same effects would occur in a situation where a fe- cognitive dissonance with the participants. Accord- male candidate would be held directly responsible ing to cognitive dissonance theory, two inconsistent for an aggressive act. cognitions set up a state of dissonance which the individual will attempt to resolve (Aronson, 1992). To References resolve the dissonance created by a female candidate Aronson, E. (1992). The return of the repressed: Dissonance performing an aggressive act (using an assaultive ad- theory makes a comeback. Psychological Inquiry, 3, 303–311. Hedlund, R. D., Freeman, P. K., Hamm K. E., & Stein, R. M. (1979). vertisement); the female candidate was dissociated The electability of women candidates: The effects of sex role from the act. This dissociation would also explain why stereotypes. Journal of Politics, 41, 513–524. the female candidates were not evaluated negatively Kahn, K. F. (1993). Gender differences in campaign messages: The political advertisements of men and women candidates for using the assaultive advertisement. for U.S. Senate. Political Research Quarterly, 46, 481–502. The results of this study indicate that gender role Lee, M. M. (1976). Why few women hold public ofﬁce: Democ- stereotypes may not fully explain the lack of women racy and sexual roles. Political Science Quarterly, 91, 297–314. Porter, N., Geis, F. L., & Jennings, J. (1983). Are women invisible in political positions. Rather, it would appear that a as leaders? Sex Roles, 9, 1035–1049. determining factor in women’s inability to gain power Procter, D. E., Schenck-Hamlin, W. J., & Haase, K. A. (1994). in the political arena lies elsewhere. Procter et al. Exploring the role of gender in the development of negative political advertisements. Women and Politics, 14, 1–22. (1994) have theorized that women’s inability to gain Trent, J. S., & Sabourin, T. (1993). Sex still counts: Women’s use political positions lies in their current lack of power. of televised advertising during the decade of the 80’s. Journal For example, female candidates often face incum- of Applied Communication Research, 21, 21–40. Whicker, M. L., Jewell, M., & Duke, L. L. (1991). Women in Congress. bents with more impressive political records and more In L. L. Duke (Ed.), Women in politics: Outsiders or insiders? (pp. funding. The study also has interesting implications 136–146). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. APPENDIX Two Advertisement Formats Presented to Participants with an Attack and Mixed-Tactic Version

Advertisement 1 Advertisement 2 It is not easy running a political campaign. However, The other candidate wants you to believe that they it seems as though the other candidate has found a have the qualities you would want in an elected official. way to make it a little easier. You see, the other candi- Let us take a closer look at the qualities of the other date has been receiving campaign contributions from candidate. The other candidate has been engaged in several special interest groups. It seems as though the several types of underhanded business dealings. other candidate is willing to do anything to win this Embezzlement and tax evasion are activities which election. Attack ending: The other candidate is even the other candidate has been guilty of practicing. That willing to give support for a particular group in ex- is correct, the other candidate has lied and cheated to change for money. Is this the type of individual you get ahead in business. Attack ending: Yet, this is not want holding office? Do you want someone that is the what the other candidate would have you believe. The puppet of special interest groups rather than being other candidate has tried very hard to present the interested in what you want? Make the right choice. image of an average person that succeeded based on Vote Matthew/Mary Williams. their own effort and ability. Honesty or deception—the Mixed-tactic ending: Matthew/Mary Williams, how- choice is yours. Vote David/Diane Smith for office. ever, does not receive contributions from special Mixed-tactic ending: David/Diane Smith, however, is interest groups. He/she sees it as his/her responsibility an upstanding businessperson. David/Diane Smith to represent you. He/she will work hard to serve you has received several awards in the past for his/her and make the changes you want. Make the right choice. business ability. Don’t you think that he/she is really Vote Matthew/Mary Williams. the one that has the best qualities to hold office? Honesty or deception—the choice is yours. Vote David/ Diane Smith for office.

36 PSI CHI JOURNAL OF UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH Spring 1999