Philippine E-Journals

Effects of Gender and Social Status on How Filipinos Perceive Political Candidates

Raymond A. Macapagal

Discipline: Gender Studies, Social Studies

 

Abstract:

The study investigated the influences of respondent’s gender and social class, and politician’s gender on perceived traits of political candidates. The survey used a 2 X 3 X 2 factorial design covering 536 respondents aged 18 to 35 years old. The respondents rated a hypothetical political candidate who was either male or female using a Shah scale. Research results show that respondents perceived political candidates positively. The females and respondents from the lower social classes showed a more favorable perception of politicians. Respondents believed that female politicians are more attractive, emotional, intelligent, and religious but male politicians are more corrupt. Findings also show that identity politics seems to be present wherein females tend to view female politicians more positively. Moreover, the males from the lower classes tend to prefer male politicians. The implications of the findings for construal research, voter education, consciousness-raising, and political campaign strategies are discussed.