Men and Women Defending Themselves from Political Scandals: Gender Stereotypes and Proneness to Forgive Scandalous Politicians

IF 2 4区心理学 Q3 PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL

International Review of Social Psychology Pub Date : 2021-08-02 DOI:10.5334/irsp.463

Silvia Cucchi, A. Graziani, Margherita Guidetti, N. Cavazza

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引用次数: 2

Abstract

Many studies have highlighted the role of gender stereotypes in impressions of politicians. In general, a politician’s image benefits from behaving consistently within gender stereotypes. The present study tested whether this also applied to different image restoration tactics employed by male versus female politicians after a scandal. We assessed participants’ evaluation of a fictitious male or female politician soon after a scandal and then after his or her defence. We used a 3 × 2 experimental design to compare the effectiveness of three defensive tactics involving different degrees of assertiveness vs. submissiveness as a function of a politician’s gender. All tactics were overall effective in improving the damaged reputation of the fictitious politician but, as expected, using the excuse of mitigating circumstances (submissive) was more beneficial to female politicians while diffusing responsibility by accusing another person (assertive) was more beneficial to male politicians, both in terms of global attitude and stereotypical evaluations (communality and agency, respectively). The tactic of mortification and requests for forgiveness did not have different effects by gender. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

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男性和女性在政治丑闻中自我保护：性别刻板印象和原谅丑闻政客的倾向

许多研究都强调了性别刻板印象在政治家印象中的作用。一般来说，政治家的形象得益于其一贯的性别刻板印象。本研究测试了这是否也适用于丑闻后男性和女性政治家所采用的不同形象恢复策略。我们评估了参与者在丑闻发生后不久对虚构的男性或女性政治家的评价，然后在他或她的辩护之后。我们使用了一个3 × 2的实验设计来比较三种防御策略的有效性，包括不同程度的自信和顺从，作为政治家性别的函数。所有策略在改善虚构政治家受损的声誉方面总体上都是有效的，但正如预期的那样，使用减轻情节的借口(顺从)对女性政治家更有利，而通过指责另一个人来分散责任(自信)对男性政治家更有利，无论是在全球态度方面还是在刻板印象评价方面(分别是共同体和代理)。羞辱和请求原谅的策略并没有因性别而有不同的效果。讨论了理论和实践意义。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

International Review of Social Psychology PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL-

CiteScore

5.20

自引率

8.00%

发文量

审稿时长

16 weeks

期刊介绍： The International Review of Social Psychology (IRSP) is supported by the Association pour la Diffusion de la Recherche Internationale en Psychologie Sociale (A.D.R.I.P.S.). The International Review of Social Psychology publishes empirical research and theoretical notes in all areas of social psychology. Articles are written preferably in English but can also be written in French. The journal was created to reflect research advances in a field where theoretical and fundamental questions inevitably convey social significance and implications. It emphasizes scientific quality of its publications in every area of social psychology. Any kind of research can be considered, as long as the results significantly enhance the understanding of a general social psychological phenomenon and the methodology is appropriate.