ABSTRACT

Political scandals can have a great impact for the perpetrator, but negative consequences may vary considerably depending on such factors as personal characteristics of the involved political actors or citizens’ expectations. The present study investigated the effect of the gender of the politician involved in different kinds of scandals deriving from the transgression of gender role-based expectations and the role of participants’ attribution of responsibility (internal vs. external) on their evaluation of the perpetrator. Results showed that participants did not express different evaluations of the female versus male politician when their behavior testified to a lack of qualities stereotypically associated to men and women. But when participants attributed the responsibility of the scandal to the perpetrator, women were punished more severely than their male colleagues. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

摘要

政治丑闻可能对肇事者产生巨大影响，但负面后果可能因涉事政治行为者的个人特征或公民期望等因素而有很大差异。本研究调查了政治家的性别对不同类型丑闻的影响，这些丑闻源于违反基于性别角色的期望，以及参与者的责任归属（内部与外部）对他们对肇事者的评价的作用。结果表明，当参与者的行为证明缺乏与男性和女性相关的刻板印象时，参与者并没有对女性和男性政治家表达不同的评价。但是当参与者将丑闻的责任归咎于肇事者时，与男同事相比，女性受到的惩罚更为严厉。讨论了研究结果的理论和实践意义。