The effect of political candidates’ occupational background on voters’ perceptions of and support for candidates

Abstract

Our study investigates how political candidates' occupational background and gender influence voters' perceptions of candidates' competence to handle a variety of policy issues and voters' support for candidates. Using experimental data collected among American and New Zealand students (N ¼ 794), our multivariate analyses indicate that students perceive candidates with political experience as most competent in handling security-related issues, candidates with a business background as most competent in handling economic issues, and candidates with a background in education as most competent in handling human services issues. This pattern is similar for male and female candidates and holds in both countries. The effect of candidates' occupational background on the likelihood to vote for the candidate, however, differs between both countries. Whereas occupational background does not seem to matter for American students, New Zealand students are substantially less likely to vote for a candidate with a business background than for a candidate with political experience.

Race, class, or both? Responses to candidate characteristics in Canada, the UK, and the US

“…First, this study is restricted to one specific variant of intersecting class and racial markers, and it is of course possible that other overlapping identities have completely different effects (cf. Philpot and Walton 2007;Coffé and Theiss-Morse 2016). Insofar as Asian backgrounds may even elicit more positive assessments than white ones (e.g.…”

“…Research on the effect of occupational background, for example, has looked at differences within the (upper) middle-class, but has not incorporated working-class occupations (e.g. Campbell and Cowley 2014b;Coffé and Theiss-Morse 2016). Yet several recent studies buck this trend.…”

“…Coffé and Theiss-Morse's (2016) study of candidate gender and occupational profiles, for example, suggests that candidate occupation, not gender, shapes competency perceptions in the US and New Zealand. For them, the key consideration is the ease with which a given set of stereotypes can be applied to politics: since gender-based assumptions are comparatively broad, they are more easily overridden by assumptions about occupational profiles (Coffé and Theiss-Morse 2016; see also Irmen 2006;Anderson, Lewis, and Baird 2011). But although this logic is easy to apply when one of the two markers is work experience, it is not obvious how one can make a similar a priori assessment in cases where both markers are identity-based.…”

“…To the extent that voters use class and race as cues, the effects of identity markers (and their interactions) are likely shaped by the salience and meaning of those markers within the broader political context (e.g. Coffé and Theiss-Morse 2016;Konitzer et al 2019).…”

Still dividing the electorate? Brexit and voter evaluation of candidates

“…Within the political science field, the usage of survey experiments has increased substantially in recent years (e.g. Sanbonmatsu 2002;Coffé and Theiss-Morse 2016;Horiuchi, Smith, and Yamamoto 2018;Wüest and Pontusson 2017). Through providing the opportunity to manipulate certain conditions within a survey instrument, we can gain insight into voters' responses to political cues otherwise impossible in a real-world electoral contest.…”