Experimental studies have shown that emotional displays of politicians can influence general political judgments and the assessments of political leaders’ traits. However, these studies often disregard that the candidate’s gender is an important factor mediating the effects of emotions on political attitudes.
According to the double bind dilemma, women in male dominated fields such as politics suffer from strong stereotypical expectations, particularly regarding their emotional behavior.
However, stereotypes are cognitive schemata, which associate social groups with negative as well as positive traits. Therefore, in contrast to previous assumptions we suppose that women candidates can also improve their impression as credible or likeable by showing specific gender-appropriate emotions. To test this hypothesis, we conducted an online experiment whereby participants watched different emotional expressions of female and male politicians and assessed these politicians thereafter. The results indicate that displaying positive emotions is particularly beneficial for ratings of female politicians.
