A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words. A Visual Test of Political Knowledge: Does It Reduce the Effect of Age and Gender?

Abstract

Political knowledge is one of the main individual-level resources that allows for meaningful political participation. Yet, measuring knowledge in surveys remains problematic, and previous research identified several sources of potential bias in traditional measures of political knowledge. In this research note, we argue for the inclusion of a "visual" measure of knowledge: linking pictures of politicians with their respective parties. We find that using this kind of visual measure reduces the age-gap in political knowledge between adolescents and their parents' generation. Furthermore, when female politicians are included, it also decreases the gender-gap in political knowledge. We conclude with some suggestions for future survey research on measuring political knowledge.