Values and candidate evaluation: How voters respond to allegations of sexual harassment

How do voters respond to candidates accused of sexual harassment? The literature on political scandals demonstrates that candidate characteristics, scandal type, and voter characteristics matter; as well as party affiliation. However, empirical evidence suggests that not all co-partisans react the s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inElectoral studies Vol. 83; p. 102613
Main Authors Savani, Manu M., Collignon, Sofia
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Elsevier Ltd 01.06.2023
Subjects
Mixed methods
Scandal
Sexual harassment and abuse
Survey experiment
Values
Voting behaviour
Values
Sexual harassment and abuse
Voting behaviour
Survey experiment
Mixed methods
Scandal
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Summary:How do voters respond to candidates accused of sexual harassment? The literature on political scandals demonstrates that candidate characteristics, scandal type, and voter characteristics matter; as well as party affiliation. However, empirical evidence suggests that not all co-partisans react the same way. Why is this the case? Our study uses Schwartz's (1996) theory of values to hypothesise that voters prioritising ‘universalism’ and ‘benevolence’ are less likely to vote for candidates accused of sexual harassment compared to voters who prioritise ‘self-enhancement’ values. Using an original, mixed methods, online survey experiment (n = 704), we show that American voters do become less favourable towards candidates linked to allegations of sexual harassment; but a sizeable minority would nevertheless vote for a co-partisan candidate accused of sexual harassment. Values are an important mechanism to explain this heterogeneity. Qualitative data corroborates our findings, and helps explain why sexual harassment allegations are not always a barrier to electoral success.
ISSN:0261-3794
1873-6890
DOI:10.1016/j.electstud.2023.102613