HPS³ - Raluca L. Pahontu - Resemblance and Discrimination in ElectionsWe welcome Raluca L. Pahontu on Wednesday, 15 May 2024 to the HPS Seminar Series

15 May 2024, 5:15 pm

The Hamburg Political Science Seminar Series (HPS³) features international speakers presenting cutting-edge research in empirical political science and political economy.

We welcome on Wednesday, 15 May 2024 17:15-18:45 CET in VMP9 A 411

Raluca L. Pahontu (King's College London)

Title:  Resemblance and Discrimination in Elections (with Stavros Poupakis, Brunel University London)
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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

The HPS³ seminars take place  in person at the UHH. Please find the preliminary program on the HPS³ Website.

We invite everyone interested to attend the HPS Seminar Series and are looking forward to seeing you.