Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T13:11:50.408Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Leading or Cheer-Leading? The Gender Gap in Political Smiles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2020

Sejin Koo
Sejin Koo*
Affiliation:
Inha University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In contrast to men, women are often assumed to bear the burden of making others feel comfortable through positive emotional displays such as smiling. However, in the literature, the empirical evidence for the relevance of gender stereotypes in explaining electoral outcomes remains inconclusive. By focusing on gender stereotypes regarding facial emotional displays, this study addresses the gendered consequence of candidates’ smiling on their electoral fortunes. I analyze the results of the 2014 Korean local elections and measure candidate smiles on campaign posters by employing a biometric artificial intelligence application detecting facial emotions in images. The results demonstrate that the smiling effect has a powerful positive impact on the electoral performance of women candidates running in a multicandidate race. The positive effect is limited for women running in two-candidate races and for male candidates regardless of the number of competitors. The findings suggest that voters use intuitive cues such as candidate facial displays in electoral posters when choosing among multiple candidates in low-information settings. This study contributes to a better understanding of the activation of gender stereotypes in the electoral process.

Keywords

Gender stereotypeslow-information electionssmilesfacial emotional expressionsinformation costs
Type
Research Article
Information
Politics & Gender , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , March 2022 , pp. 183 - 211
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

I thank Dr. Loretta O'Donnell and the Consortium of Gender Scholars at Nazarbayev University for their passionate and insightful encouragement. Their support enabled me to begin this research. I am also grateful to Dr. Bon-Sang Koo and anonymous reviewers for their useful suggestions. This work was supported by an Inha University Research Grant.

References

REFERENCES

Alexander, Deborah, and Anderson, Kristi. 1993. “Gender as a Factor in the Attribution of Leadership Traits.” Political Research Quarterly 46 (3): 527–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arbuckle, Julianne, and Williams, Benne D.. 2003. “Students’ Perceptions of Expressiveness: Age and Gender Effects on Teacher Evaluations.” Sex Roles 49 (9–10): 507–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Asano, Masahiko, and Patterson, Dennis P.. 2018. “Smiles, Turnout, Candidates, and the Winning of District Seats: Evidence from the 2015 Local Elections in Japan.” Politics and the Life Sciences 37 (1): 16–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ballew, Charles C., and Todorov, Alexander. 2007. “Predicting Political Elections from Rapid and Unreflective Face Judgments.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104 (46): 17948–53.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Banducci, Susan. A., Karp, Jeffrey. A., Thrasher, Michael, and Rallings, Colin. 2008. “Ballot Photographs as Cues in Low-Information Elections.” Political Psychology 29 (6): 903–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barrett, Lisa Feldman, Adolphs, Ralph, Marsella, Stacy, Martinez, Aleix M., and Pollak, Seth D.. 2019. “Emotional Expressions Reconsidered: Challenges to Inferring Emotion from Human Facial Movements.” Psychological Science in the Public Interest 20 (1): 1–68. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100619832930.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barrick, Murray R., Shaffer, Jonathan A., and DeGrassi, Sandra W.. 2009. “What You See May Not Be What You Get: Relationships among Self-Presentation Tactics and Ratings of Interview and Job Performance.” Journal of Applied Psychology 94 (6): 1394–1411.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bauer, Nichole M. 2015. “Emotional, Sensitive, and Unfit for Office? Gender Stereotype Activation and Support Female Candidates.” Political Psychology 36 (6): 691–708.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benjamin, Daniel J., and Shapiro, Jesse M.. 2009. “Thin-Slice Forecasts of Gubernatorial Elections.” Review of Economics and Statistics 91 (3): 523–36.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Berggren, Niclas, Jordahl, Henrik, and Poutvaara, Panu. 2010. “The Looks of a Winner: Beauty and Electoral Success.” Journal of Public Economics 94 (1–2): 8–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brockington, David. 2003. “A Low Information Theory of Ballot Position Effect.” Political Behavior 25 (1): 1–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brody, Leslie R., and Hall, Judith A.. 2000. “Gender, Emotion, and Expression.” In Handbook of Emotions: Part IV: Social/Personality Issues, 2nd ed., eds. Lewis, Michael and Haviland-Jones, Jeannette. New York: Guilford Press, 325–414.Google Scholar
Brown, Shaw C., and Sulzer-Azaroff, Beth. 1994. “An Assessment of the Relationship between Customer Satisfaction and Service Friendliness.” Journal of Organizational Behavior Management 14 (2): 55–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carlson, Tom. 2001. “Gender and Political Advertising across Cultures: A Comparison of Male and Female Political Advertising in Finland and the US.” European Journal of Communication 16 (2): 131–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chang, Chun-Tuan, Lee, Yu-Kang, and Cheng, Zhao-Hong. 2017. “Baby Face Wins? Examining Election Success Based on Candidate Election Bulletin via Multilevel Modeling.” Asian Journal of Social Psychology 20 (2): 97–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cox, Gary W., and Katz, Jonathan N.. 1995. “Why Did the Incumbency Advantage in US House Elections Grow?” American Journal of Political Science 40 (2): 478–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deutsch, Francine M., LeBaron, Dorothy, and Fryer, Maury March. 1987. “What Is in a Smile?” Psychology of Women Quarterly 11 (3): 341–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ditonto, Tessa M., Hamilton, Allison J., and Redlawsk, David P.. 2014. “Gender Stereotypes, Information Search, and Voting Behavior in Political Campaigns.” Political Behavior 36 (2): 335–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dodd, David K., Russell, Brenda L., and Jenkins, Cynthia. 1999. “Smiling in School Yearbook Photos: Gender Differences from Kindergarten to Adulthood.” The Psychological Record 49 (4): 543–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dolan, Kathleen. 2010. “The Impact of Gender Stereotyped Evaluations on Support for Women Candidates.” Political Behavior 32 (1): 69–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dolan, Kathleen. 2014. “Gender Stereotypes, Candidate Evaluations, and Voting for Women Candidates: What Really Matters?” Political Research Quarterly 67 (1): 96–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dolan, Kathleen, and Lynch, Timothy. 2016. “The Impact of Gender Stereotypes on Voting for Women Candidates by Level and Type of Office.” Politics & Gender 12 (3): 573–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fischer, Agneta H. 1993. “Sex Differences in Emotionality: Fact or Stereotype?” Feminism & Psychology 3 (3): 303–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fischer, Agneta H., and LaFrance, Marianne. 2015. “What Drives the Smile and the Tear: Why Women Are More Emotionally Expressive than Men.” Emotion Review 7 (1): 22–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fox, Richard L., and Smith, Eric R. A. N.. 1998. “The Role of Candidate Sex in Voter Decision-Making.” Political Psychology 19 (2): 405–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, Judith A. 1984. Nonverbal Sex Differences: Communication Accuracy and Expressive Style. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Hamermesh, Daniel S. 2006. “Changing Looks and Changing ‘Discrimination’: The Beauty of Economists.” Economics Letters 93 (3): 405–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamermesh, Daniel S., and Parker, Amy. 2005. “Beauty in the Classroom: Instructors’ Pulchritude and Putative Pedagogical Productivity.” Economics of Education Review 24 (4): 369–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hayes, Danny. 2011. “When Gender and Party Collide: Stereotyping in Candidate Trait Attribution.” Politics & Gender 7 (2): 133–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Helliwell, John, Layard, Richard, and Sachs, Jeffrey, eds. 2012. World Happiness Report. New York: Earth Institute, Columbia University. https://www.earth.columbia.edu/sitefiles/file/Sachs%20Writing/2012/World%20Happiness%20Report.pdf (accessed September 3, 2020).Google Scholar
Hoegen, Rens, Gratch, Jonathan, Parkinson, Brian, and Shore, Danielle. 2019. “Signals of Emotion Regulation in a Social Dilemma: Detection from Face and Context.” Presented at the 8th International Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction, September 3–6, Cambridge. https://www.computer.org/csdl/proceedings-article/acii/2019/08925478/1fHGEbZwvcI (accessed September 4, 2020).Google Scholar
Horiuchi, Yusaku, Komatsu, Tadashi, and Nakaya, Fumio. 2012. “Should Candidates Smile to Win Elections? An Application of Automated Face Recognition Technology.” Political Psychology 33 (6): 925–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huddy, Leonie, and Terkildsen, Nayda. 1993. “The Consequences of Gender Stereotypes for Women Candidates at Different Levels and Types of Office.” Political Research Quarterly 46 (3): 503–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jewell, Malcolm E., and Breaux, David. 1988. “The Effect of Incumbency on State Legislative Elections.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 13 (4): 495–514.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kahn, Kim Fridkin. 1996. The Political Consequences of Being a Woman: How Stereotypes Influence the Conduct and Consequences of Political Campaigns. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Kierstead, Diane, D'Agostino, Patti, and Dill, Heidi. 1988. “Sex Role Stereotyping of College Professors: Bias in Students' Ratings of Instructors.” Journal of Educational Psychology 80 (3): 342–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, Song-Hee. 2013, “A Society That Recommends a Baby Face: Representation of Mass Media about Body, Age and Gender.” [In Korean.] Media, Gender & Culture 27: 77–115.Google Scholar
King, Amy, and Leigh, Andrew. 2009. “Beautiful Politicians.” Kyklos 62 (4): 579–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koch, Jeffrey W. 2000. “Do Citizens Apply Gender Stereotypes to Infer Candidates’ Ideological Orientations?” Journal of Politics 62 (2): 414–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koppell, Jonathan G. S., and Steen, Jennifer A.. 2004. “The Effects of Ballot Position on Election Outcomes.” Journal of Politics 66 (1): 267–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LaFrance, Marianne. 2011. Why Smile: The Science Behind Facial Expressions. New York: W. W. Norton.Google Scholar
LaFrance, Marianne, and Hecht, Marvin A. 2000. “Gender and Smiling: A Meta-Analysis.” In Gender and Emotion: Social Psychological Perspectives, ed. Fischer, Agneta H.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 118–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lawson, Chappell, Lenz, Gabriel S., Baker, Andy, and Myers, Michael. 2010. “Looking Like a Winner: Candidate Appearance and Electoral Success in New Democracies.” World Politics 62 (4): 561–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lei, Su, and Gratch, Jonathan. 2019. “Smiles Signal Surprise in a Social Dilemma.” Presented at the 8th International Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction, September 3–6, Cambridge. https://www.computer.org/csdl/proceedings-article/acii/2019/08925494/1fHGEoEWA7e (accessed September 4, 2020).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leigh, Andrew, and Susilo, Tirta. 2009. “Is Voting Skin-Deep? Estimating the Effect of Candidate Ballot Photographs on Election Outcomes.” Journal of Economic Psychology 30 (1): 61–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Little, Anthony C., Burriss, Robert P., Jones, Benedict C., and Roberts, S. Craig. 2007. “Facial Appearance Affects Voting Decisions.” Evolution and Human Behavior 28 (1): 18–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lutz, Georg. 2010. “First Come, First Served: The Effect of Ballot Position on Electoral Success in Open Ballot PR Elections.” Representation 46 (2): 167–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matland, R., and Tezcür, G. 2011. “Women as Candidates: An Experimental Study in Turkey.” Politics & Gender 7 (3): 365–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDuff, Daniel, Kodra, Evan, Kaliouby, Rana el, and LaFrance, Marianne. 2017. “A Large-Scale Analysis of Sex Differences in Facial Expressions.” PLOS ONE 12 (4): e0173942.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Morse, Claire. 1982. “College Yearbook Pictures: More Females Smile than Males.” Journal of Psychology 110 (1): 3–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Niedenthal, Paula M., Rychlowska, Magdalena, Wood, Adrienne, and Zhao, Fangyun. 2018. “Heterogeneity of Long-History Migration Predicts Smiling, Laughter and Positive Emotion across the Globe and within the United States.” PLOS ONE 13 (8): e0197651.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Popkin, Samuel L. 1991. The Reasoning Voter: Communication and Persuasion in Presidential Campaigns. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Poutvaara, Panu, Jordahl, Henrik, and Berggren, Niclas. 2009. “Faces of Politicians: Babyfacedness Predicts Inferred Competence but Not Electoral Success.” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 45 (5): 1132–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rhue, Lauren. 2018. “Racial Influence on Automated Perceptions of Emotions.” https://ssrn.com/abstract=3281765 (accessed September 3, 2020).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sampaio, Anna. 2006. “Women of Color Teaching Political Science: Examining the Intersections of Race, Gender, and Course Material in the Classroom.” PS: Political Science & Politics 39 (4): 917–22.Google Scholar
Sanbonmatsu, Kira. 2002. “Gender Stereotypes and Vote Choice.” American Journal of Political Science 46 (1): 20–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sanbonmatsu, Kira, and Dolan, Kathleen. 2009. “Do Gender Stereotypes Transcend Party?” Political Research Quarterly 62 (3): 485–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Senior, Carl, Ridout, Nathan, and Stewart, Patrick A.. 2019. “Smiles of Affiliation and Dominance When Competing for Leadership: The Effect of Gender in the 2016 US Presidential Debates.” PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/azdu7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shields, Stephanie. A. 2002. Speaking from the Heart: Gender and the Social Meaning of Emotion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Stoppard, Janet M., and Gunn Gruchy, Carla D.. 1993. “Gender, Context, and Expression of Positive Emotion.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 19 (2): 143–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tsai, Wei-Chi. 2001. “Determinants and Consequences of Employee Displayed Positive Emotions.” Journal of Management 27 (4): 497–512.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, Leonard. 1994. “Political Advertising in the Year of the Woman: Did X Mark the Spot?” In The Year of the Woman: Myths and Realities, eds. Cook, Elizabeth A., Thomas, Sue, and Wilcox, Clyde. Boulder, CO: Westview, 197–215.Google Scholar
Wu, David. 1996. “Chinese Childhood Socialization.” In The Handbook of Chinese Psychology, ed. Bond, Michael. New York: Oxford University Press, 143–54.Google Scholar
Yoon, Jisung, and Song, B. K.. 2019. “The Effect of Candidates’ Criminal and Tax Records on Election Outcomes: Evidence from the 2018 South Korean Local Elections.” [In Korean.] Journal of Korean Politics 28 (1): 189–215.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zheng, Wenwen, Yang, Qian, Peng, Kaiping, and Yu, Feng. 2016. “What's in the Chinese Babyface? Cultural Differences in Understanding the Babyface.” Frontiers in Psychology 7: 819.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Supplementary material: File

Koo Supplementary Materials

Koo Supplementary Materials

Download Koo Supplementary Materials(File)
File 197.5 KB