Persuasive Implications of Experts’ Gender and Visual Gender Expression

• In Event: The Political Psychology of Gender

Abstract

Expert sources are a fundamental part of political news coverage. However, there is a substantive gender gap in the representation of experts in the news media. This raises the question of whether the gender of experts affect what citizens' learn from them, whether they update their policy attitudes, and how they perceived the traits and competences of the experts? In this study, we investigate this research question. Integrating research on authority and psychological research on the role of gender and gender stereotypes we develop a theoretical framework to answer the research question. We argue that the impact of experts' gender on citizens' learning from news coverage, opinions, and perceptions of the personality traits of the expert is moderated by the visual gender expression of the experts as indexed by how masculine versus feminine their visual appearance is. We test this argument drawing on semi-structured interviews with citizens and by implementing a large-scale survey experiment to a nationally representative sample of Danish citizens. In the experiment participants are randomly assigned to read a news article featuring an interview with an expert. We randomize the gender of the expert, the visual appearance of the expert (using AI edited photos), and the topic of the news article. We conclude by discussing the implications of the findings. The study contributes with new knowledge on whether and under what conditions inequalities exist in the impact of male and female experts on citizens' attitudes, political learning, and perceptions of experts traits and competences.

Authors

• Mathilde Dvinge, Aarhus University

• Kristine Juul Kjær, Aarhus University

• Lasse Laustsen, Aarhus University

• Lene Aarøe, Aarhus University