Facing Voters: Gender Expression, Gender Stereotypes, and Vote Choice

Voters infer traits about political candidates based on their physical appearance. Research shows that candidates with certain traits receive higher vote shares regardless of their true abilities. This article adds to the mounting evidence that candidate appearance shapes voter decisions, but it goes beyond existing research by examining how variations of gender expression in candidate images affect voter choices. We analyze how vote choice is influenced by gender-expressive visual cues and find that candidates conforming to social norms perform better at the ballot box than those with nonconforming gender expressions. However, this effect diminishes with additional information about the candidate. Using a data set of over 460,000 candidate images and election returns, our analysis suggests that gender conformity serves as a "cheap" signal of credibility for voters and washes out when other information is available. Our article concludes by suggesting ways to combat bias in gender expression.