Understanding Electability: The Effects of Implicit and Explicit Sexism on Candidate Perceptions

ABSTRACT During US electoral campaigns, arguments about “electability” are frequently leveled against candidates. For instance, voters may use strategic discrimination where they hesitate to support women candidates and candidates of color because they perceive others will discriminate against them, decreasing their electability. In this article, we seek to better understand the concept of perceived electability by assessing how voters’ implicit and explicit attitudes about gender influence their candidate preferences. To do this, we conduct a survey experiment with a nationally representative sample (n = 745) from the United States that incorporates an original measure of implicit sexism.