ABSTRACT

Stereotypes about female candidates can affect voters’ perceptions, particularly when candidates violate gender role norms. We focus on a potentially important but overlooked characteristic: whether a woman keeps her last name after getting married. Using a survey experiment that asked respondents to assess candidates who did and did not have the same last name as their husband, we find that this decision has no overall effect on electability or the perception of a candidate’s characteristics. However, our results show a number of conditional effects. Most notably, males with less education rate candidates who kept their names as less honest, less ethical, less caring, and less intelligent than those who make the more traditional choice.

摘要

对女性候选人的刻板印象可能会影响选民的看法，特别是当候选人违反性别角色规范时。我们关注一个潜在重要但被忽视的特征：女性结婚后是否保留自己的姓氏。通过一项调查实验，要求受访者评估与丈夫姓氏相同或不同的候选人，我们发现这一决定对选举能力或对候选人特征的看法没有总体影响。然而，我们的结果显示了许多条件效应。最值得注意的是，与那些做出更传统选择的人相比，受教育程度较低的男性认为保留自己名字的候选人不诚实、不道德、不关心人、不聪明。