Visuals and Stereotypes

Abstract

This panel examines how visual politics shapes democratic competition and can reinforces or disrupt gendered stereotypes. The papers examine how visual cues about candidate - such as femininity, attractiveness, or leader visibility - influence perceptions of competence, as well as broader campaign dynamics and electoral outcomes. The panel advances debates on representation, by asking who is seen in party-controlled imagery and how voters respond to visual characteristics. As well as survey-experiments of voter evaluations, several contributions employ advanced computational methods on large-scale social media data, exploring how changing platform environments condition visibility and how researchers can study candidate communication online.

Title	Details
Not in the Picture: Visual Descriptive Representation and Gender Gaps in Parties’ Visual Communication	View Paper Details
Attractive Candidates Win Elections Partially Through Increased Political Donations	View Paper Details
Campaigning through the lens of Google: A large-scale algorithm audit of Google searches in the run-up to the Swiss Federal Elections 2023	View Paper Details
"Yes, it's a woman. So what?" - Femininity in women politicians' self-presentation	View Paper Details
Gender and Depictions of Party Leaders in European Union Member States on Instagram: A Picture of Bias?	View Paper Details