The Conditional Effects of Candidate Sex and Sexism on Perceived Electability and Voting Intentions: Evidence from the 2020 Democratic Primary

In each of two studies, six past or present Democratic presidential candidates (3 males, 3 females) were selected to construct groups of male and female candidates roughly matched in terms of prominence and ideological position. In Study 1, a conditional effect of candidate sex was found such that female candidates suffered deficits in voting intentions in participants at or above the 68th percentile in hostile sexism even when accounting for candidate familiarity. Simultaneously, sexism on its own predicted increased support for Donald Trump over the entire Democratic field. In Study 2, the conditional effect of candidate sex on voting intentions was positive (predicting greater support for women) for participants below the 26th percentile on sexism and negative for those above the 53rd percentile on sexism even when accounting for perceived electability, competence, and trustworthiness. The interaction also predicted perceived electability in an examination of conditional direct and indirect effects.