Hamburg Political Science Seminar Series - HPS³ - Raluca L. Pahontu
When: Wed, 15.05.2024 5:15 PM until 6:45 PM
Where: Von-Melle-Park 9, 20146 Hamburg, VMP9 A411
Please be invited to the Hamburg Empirical Political Science Seminar Series - HPS³. The seminar series features international speakers presenting cutting-edge research in empirical political science and political economy. It takes place on Wednesdays or Thursdays in the Summer Semester 2024 in person and can be attended by UHH researchers, guests, and students. For further information about dates and speakers, please refer to the HPS³ Website.
We welcome on
15 May 2024, 17:15-18:45 CET in VMP9 A411
Raluca L. Pahontu (King's College London)
Title: Resemblance and Discrimination in Elections (with Stavros Poupakis, Brunel University London)
Abstract:
Discrimination affects hiring, mating and voting decisions. Whilst discrimination in elections mainly relates to gender or race, we introduce a novel source of discrimination: candidate resemblance. When candidates' partisanship is not known, voters select those that resemble most elected co-partisans. Using a machine learning algorithm for face comparison among white male legislators, we find a stronger resemblance effect for Republicans compared to Democrats in the US. This happens because Republicans have a higher within-party facial resemblance than Democrats, even when accounting for gender and race. We find a similar pattern in the UK, where Conservative MPs are more similar looking to each other than Labour. Using a survey experiment, we find that Tory voters reward resemblance, while there is no similar effect for Labour. The results are consistent with an interpretation of this behaviour as a form of statistical discrimination
Keywords: Voter Behaviour, Discrimination, Facial Resemblance, Low-Information Election, Partisanship
We invite everyone interested to attend!
The HPS³ seminars take place in person at the UHH. Please find the preliminary program on the HPS³ Website.