To examine the effects of political candidates' gender and advertising message, 160 undergraduates (90 women, 62 men, and 8 unreported) read 1 of 4 political ads and completed a questionnaire assessing the ad, perceptions of candidate personality, and likelihood of voting for the candidate. As hypothesized, a 2 (candidate gender: man or woman) X 2 (ad: comparative or negative) analysis of variance revealed that participants were more likely to vote for a candidate who used comparative advertising. However, contrary to our hypotheses, neither the effect of gender nor the gender by ad interaction was significant. Our findings suggest that politicians should carefully choose the advertising message for their campaigns because it can have a significant impact on a voter's choice.


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Faculty supervisor: Elizabeth McGee Nelson, Christian Brothers University