Gender disparities in voting patterns persist across democracies. This research explores the role of gender-specific heuristics—men's lower sensitivity to social cues versus women's greater concern with social harmony—in shaping party choices. The study finds that men are disproportionately drawn to stigmatized and ideologically extreme parties, while women favor mainstream options perceived as socially harmonious.
Drawing from comparative electoral data across 28 countries (CS/ES waves), the analysis demonstrates how these psychological factors create systematic voting differences. Key findings reveal significant gender gaps in party support that correlate strongly with social perception traits rather than ideology alone.
This research reframes our understanding of democratic voting, emphasizing its inherently social dimension.
| Gender Differences in Vote Choice: Social Cues and Social Harmony as Heuristics was authored by Eelco Harteveld, Stefan Dahlberg, Andrej Kokkonen and Wouter Van Der Brug. It was published by Cambridge in BJPS in 2019. |
