New Looks
Shifting Stereotypes About Men and Women Candidates: Experimental Evidence from the United States
Claire Gothreau & Lasse Laustsen
Politics & Gender, forthcoming
Abstract:
Conventional wisdom holds that women’s political underrepresentation partly stems from gendered stereotypes, with women candidates perceived as lower in ability and assertiveness, and as less competent to handle key issues like the economy and national security. However, recent research uncovers how societal leadership stereotypes have become less advantageous for men. Two conjoint experiments show that Americans’ stereotypes about political candidates follow similar trends: although women candidates (following conventional expectations) are perceived as friendlier and more moral than men, they are also seen as higher in ability and as equally assertive. Similarly, men and women candidates are perceived as equally competent to handle the economy, crime, and national security. Further analyses reveal that liberals and individuals low in hostile sexism hold stereotypes most favorable to women. These findings suggest that gendered candidate stereotypes likely constitute less of a hindrance to women seeking political nominations than in the past.
Trends in the Racial and Ethnic Classification of Mixed-Heritage Children in the United States, 2000–2022
Christel Kesler
Social Science Quarterly, March 2025
Methods: Using 2000–2022 American Community Survey (ACS) data, a first analysis focuses on first-generation biracial children, whose parents report being of two different monoracial categories. A second analysis includes a broader population with variation in the generational timing of mixed heritage and in whether parents indicate their mixed heritage in response to ACS race or ancestry questions.
Results: Parents became more likely throughout the period, by up to 20–30 percentage points for some groups, to report their children's heritage as mixed, while both White-only and non-White-only classification declined. Parents who report mixed heritage for their children are more socioeconomically advantaged, by income and education, than those who choose a single-heritage label.
Racial Identification Switching and Health among Mothers in California
Brenda Bustos, Jason Bonham & Tim Bruckner
Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World, March 2025
Abstract:
Although prior studies indicate that approximately 6 percent of the population will engage in racial identification switching (RIS), no prior research has explored the potential relation between RIS and health outcomes. Using the California birth cohort file from 2005 to 2015, the authors examine RIS among mothers identifying as non-Hispanic (NH) white or NH Black and with at least two live births over the test period (n = 449,008). Using a sibling-control design, the authors compared perinatal health and sociodemographic characteristics of mothers with RIS over time against those without RIS. The authors also conducted logistic regression analyses predicting maternal race at the second birth after controlling for characteristics of the second birth. In sibling-control univariate results, mothers who switched from NH white to NH Black over time were more likely to deliver a low-weight infant, use public programs (e.g., Medicaid), and have less than a high school education relative to NH white mothers who did not change racial identity over time. Logistic regression results further indicate several socioeconomic (e.g., Medicaid) and health (e.g., low birth weight) factors related to RIS. The pattern of results indicate that health disparity research should carefully consider racial identity as a fluid construct which often varies with socioeconomic and health status.
Mayor Pete is Smart and Elizabeth Warren is Unlikable? Coverage of Warmth and Competence Traits in the 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary
Meredith Conroy et al.
Politics & Gender, forthcoming
Abstract:
Past work on media coverage of candidates for political office has explored gender differences in quantity, substance, and tone with mixed results depending on the office, race, and context. We draw on the stereotype content model (SCM) to examine gendered patterns of media coverage of candidates on the trait dimensions of warmth and competence in the 2020 U.S. Democratic presidential primary. Combining Natural Language Processing and manual analysis of news, we find that female candidates receive more negative than positive warmth coverage, while male candidates receive more tonally balanced warmth coverage, which suggests that female leaders are penalized on the dimension of warmth. Additionally, white women received more warmth coverage than women of color and women of color receive more competence coverage than white women. The findings suggest news media may portray white women and women of color candidates as lacking gender congruent traits like warmth but may portray white women as possessing role congruent traits like competence.
Gender differences in advice giving
Elif Osun
Experimental Economics, November 2024, Pages 1068-1105
Abstract:
I experimentally investigate whether there is a gender difference in advice giving in a gender-neutral task with varying difficulty in which the incentives of the sender and the receiver are perfectly aligned. I find that women are more reluctant to give advice compared to men for difficult questions. The gender difference in advice giving cannot be explained by gender differences in performance. Self-confidence explains some of the gender gap, but not all. The gender gap disappears if advice becomes enforceable. Introducing a model of guilt and responsibility, I discuss possible underlying mechanisms that are consistent with the findings.
Black, White, or Multiracial? How Socioeconomic and Political Context Shapes Racial Classification
Marta Ascherio & Carolina Aragão
Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World, March 2025
Abstract:
In this study, the authors examine whether and how city-level socioeconomic and political context shape racial classification practices in U.S. Black-White families. The authors link IPUMS 2012–2022, American Community Survey population estimates, and presidential election voting estimates to create a dataset that has 19,907 children across 1,135 Public Use Microdata Areas. Results from multilevel multinomial logistic regression models show that although overall parents are most likely to classify their multiracial children as Black and White, parents are more likely to classify their children as a single race in certain sociopolitical contexts: compared with parents in wealthier areas, parents in disadvantaged areas are more likely to classify their children as only White. Compared with parents in predominantly Democratic areas, parents in predominantly Republican areas are more likely to classify their children as only Black. The authors argue that parents of Black-White children promote racial passing in a low-wage labor market, and armoring in anti-Black political contexts. These findings emphasize the salient role of socioeconomic and political context in the construction of race and contribute to ongoing debates on the future of race and ethnicity in the United States.
Cortisol and testosterone coupling: Enhanced hormone reactivity to intercollegiate athletic competition in women athletes
Filip Durovic & David Edwards
Psychoneuroendocrinology, March 2025
Abstract:
In a variety of settings, cortisol and testosterone are positively “coupled.” That is, within-person fluctuations of these hormones occur in parallel, with increases and decreases in one hormone corresponding to increases and decreases in the other. A dataset comprised of salivary cortisol and testosterone levels from varsity women athletes from six different Emory University sports teams (volleyball 2002, 2005, and 2008; softball 2004; tennis 2009; soccer 2013) was used to explore the relationship between coupling and hormone reactivity to athletic competition. In the majority of athletes, athletic competition was associated with increases in levels of salivary cortisol and testosterone occurring principally during the period between the start of warm-up and the end of competition. Athletes varied with respect to the degree that cortisol and testosterone were coupled. Athletes for whom these two hormones were strongly coupled showed substantially higher competition-related increases in cortisol and testosterone levels than athletes for whom these hormones were less strongly coupled. This heretofore undocumented relationship between hormone coupling and hormone reactivity in a sport setting is consonant with the idea that increases in cortisol and testosterone are parts of a coordinated and complementary response to the physical and/or psychological stress of athletic competition. Given that cortisol and testosterone, each in their own way(s) positively affect athletic performance, a singular benefit of cortisol/testosterone coupling may be an enhanced reactivity to competition, with a corresponding increase in the positive effects of each of these hormones on performance.