How Citizens Respond to a Sexual Misconduct Allegation Made in a Partisan Context

Abstract

Summary of the project: (1) A natural experiment randomly assigning people to respond to a survey either just before, or just after, the Kavanaugh confirmation vote in 2018 to estimate the effects of his confirmation on partisan and gender gaps in trust in the Supreme Court, (2) Survey experiments using counterfactual questioning to measure partisans’ reactions to the allegations made against politicians Andrew Cuomo, Joe Biden and Eric Greitens, (3) A survey experiment randomizing the partisanship of politicians accused of sexual misconduct and the perceived credibility of an allegation to confirm asymmetric reactions between Democrats and Republicans, (4) A survey experiment on how the public’s reactions to sexual harassment vary depending on the extent to which the accuser deviates from an ideal victim stereotype.

Publication
Work in Progress