Voiceless and Genderless Politics: Adding Voice to the Experimental Study of Social Identities in Political Science

The number of people in advanced democracies who identify as LGBT or gender non-binary is growing. In parallel to this growth, record-high numbers of non-binary and LGBT people are running for political office. Political scientist Martin Naunov will examine how adherence to gender roles and sexual orientation impact the electability of political candidates. He will alter photos and vocal pitch on audio messages from theoretical candidates to assess whether feminized versions of images and audio negatively impact a candidate’s electoral prospects.