The role of sexism in voting in the 2016 presidential election

The 2016 presidential election was one of the most politically charged and volatile elections in recent history. The election also saw its first female candidate, Hillary Clinton, represent a major political party. Prior research is inconclusive on how biases can affect political outcomes, with some...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Personality and individual differences 2017-12, Vol.119, p.189-193
Main Authors: Bock, Jarrod, Byrd-Craven, Jennifer, Burkley, Melissa
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attitudes
Attitudes toward women
Bias
Candidates
College students
Discrimination
Hostile sexism
Individual differences
Party identification
Political psychology
Power
Presidential elections
Racism
Sexism
Social cognition
Trump, Donald J
Voting
Women
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The 2016 presidential election was one of the most politically charged and volatile elections in recent history. The election also saw its first female candidate, Hillary Clinton, represent a major political party. Prior research is inconclusive on how biases can affect political outcomes, with some research showing that racism has affected presidential elections, while others have shown that sexism does not affect elections. However, agentic women often face discrimination and backlash when seeking positions of power. The current study sought to extend past work by examining the potential role of sexism in the 2016 election. After controlling for participant sex, time of participation, and political party identification, it was found that individual differences in hostile sexism and traditional attitudes toward women significantly predicted voting for Donald Trump. These results suggest that voter attitudes toward women may have played a role in the election outcome. •Attitudes toward women were examined in relation to the 2016 presidential election.•College students were surveyed for the three months following the election.•Hostile sexism and traditional attitudes toward women predicted voting for Trump.•These patterns held after controlling for sex, political party identification, and time of participation.
ISSN:0191-8869
1873-3549
DOI:10.1016/j.paid.2017.07.026