RESEARCH

Persistence of Voice Pitch Bias Against Policy Differences

with Ozgur Kibris (in Political Science Research and Methods) First View

_{Abstract: Voters evaluate politicians not just on their policy positions and partisanship, but also on how they look and sound. But to what extent might these latter characteristics be traded for a more preferable policy stance? In this paper, we use an online experiment to study the relative effect on voter behavior of candidate voice pitch and policy differences between candidates. We first demonstrate a strong : in an election between candidates who are identical in every aspect but voice pitch, voters are significantly more likely to choose the one with the lower voice pitch. Voice pitch bias is higher in elections between men than women candidates. We then introduce a novel phenomenon. Persistence of voice pitch bias is the amount of policy difference needed to compensate for voice pitch bias. While persistence is also gender-dependent, the effect is now reversed: voice pitch bias is more persistent in elections between women than men candidates. Finally, as a possible mechanism we show that voters perceive candidates with a lower voice pitch as more competent and trustworthy. Our findings are robust against voters’ gender and other socio-economic characteristics.}

Perceived masculinity is not a vote winner: A visual survey experiment

_{Abstract: As politics has become more visual with increased use of photos and videos on social media and newsplatforms, there is an increasing need to understand the unexplored heterogeneity in candidate preferences via their visual representation. In this study, I explore whether voter preferences for candidates’ gender and race in the United States are influenced by candidates’ perceived facial masculinity as a gendered visual cue. Adopting a novel visual experiment, I generated photorealistic virtual candidates using a tool that allows comprehensive facial feature customisation. Against expectations, I find a general preference for less facial masculinity in political candidates, primarily shaped by the preferences of self-identified liberal voters. Women, particularly African American women candidates, are worse off when they are perceived to look more masculine than feminine. One mechanism that can explain the finding on women candidates is the lower degree of perceived attractiveness for more masculine-looking candidates.}

Identity Priming in Campaigning: Field Experimental Evidence from Women Candidates in Germany

with Frederik Ferié and Florian Foos

Slide presentation – 2023 EPSA

_{Abstract: For female candidates, gender is not only a social characteristic, but also an important social identity and lived experience, which they discuss with voters on the campaign trail. However, while there is solid evidence on how gender influences vote choice, we know little about the effects of identity priming on how voters evaluate female candidates. This study seeks to advance our understanding of how messages that emphasize candidates’ social identities, including their gender identity, influence voter evaluations. Based on two field experiments that we conducted in collaboration with two female state parliamentary candidates in Germany, we show that emphasizing a candidates’ gender and discussing gender in combination with other social identities, can positively affect how voters view candidates. However, there is little evidence that this effect materialises via identity alignment between voters and candidates, or that priming gender identity independently affects vote choice when other social identities are primed.}

Revisiting the differential mobilisation hypothesis: An individual participant data meta-analysis

with Francisco Tomás-Valiente Jordá, Florian Foos and Peter John

Slide presentation – 2023 EPOP

_{Abstract: This study tests whether GOTV interventions are more effective on subjects with higher voting propensities. If that is the case, GOTV interventions will affect the composition of the electorate. They could enlarge the participation gap by mobilising the kind of voters that already have high voting propensities to start with rather than under-represented groups. This hypothesis was tested and confirmed in Enos, Fowler and Vavreck (2014). However, over the last decade, a large number of new experimental data sets have been produced, which allow a further and more complete test of the differential mobilisation hypothesis. Building on Enos, Fowler and Vavreck (2014), we expand their analysis in three ways. First, we have access to a larger sample of GOTV experiments: whereas Enos, Fowler and Vavreck (2014) look at 11 experimental papers with a total of 24 GOTV treatment arms (all of them pre-2008 and from the US), we have so far identified 78 experimental data sets and are still expanding this sample. Second, we propose to use a method that has rarely been used in political science, which both accounts for the hierarchical nature of the data and relaxes functional form and common support assumptions: individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis of conditional average treatment effects (CATEs) in voting propensity bins. Third, drawing on our large dataset, we can describe the political, geographic and temporal contexts in which GOTV interventions have widened or narrowed participation gaps.}

Vocal Chameleons: Gender dynamics in nonverbal expressions in campaigning

_{Abstract: In politics, building one’s image and winning over the public takes effective verbal and nonverbal communication. The use of verbal rhetoric by politicians has been the subject of much study, but the importance of nonverbal communication in political discourse, particularly when considering the gender dynamics of both politicians and voters, has received comparatively less attention. The purpose of this study is to examine the gender dynamics at play in the use of nonverbal expressions, particularly voice pitch modulation, during face-to-face campaign interactions by analysing video recordings from the Democratic Party’s primary town hall meetings for the 2020 US presidential election. Results indicate that female candidates increase their voice pitch when engaging male audience members, whereas male candidates lower their pitch when addressing female audience members, align with gendered expectations, and enhance attractiveness perceptions informed by evolutionary psychology research. To fully comprehend gendered political communication dynamics, this study highlights a comprehensive approach that incorporates nonverbal expressions in elite behaviour.}