title: Quantitative analysis of gender stereotypes and information aggregation in a national election.
abstract: By analyzing a database of a questionnaire answered by a large majority of candidates and elected in a parliamentary election, we quantitatively verify that (i) female candidates on average present political profiles which are more compassionate and more concerned with social welfare issues than male candidates and (ii) the voting procedure acts as a process of information aggregation. Our results show that information aggregation proceeds with at least two distinct paths. In the first case candidates characterize themselves with a political profile aiming to describe the profile of the majority of voters. This is typically the case of candidates of political parties which are competing for the center of the various political dimensions. In the second case, candidates choose a political profile manifesting a clear difference from opposite political profiles endorsed by candidates of a political party positioned at the opposite extreme of some political dimension.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze Statistiche e Matematiche Silvio Vianelli, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy.
authors.forename: Michele
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tumminello
authors.forename: Salvatore
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Miccichè
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Varho
authors.forename: Jyrki
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Piilo
authors.forename: Rosario N
authors.initials: RN
authors.lastname: Mantegna
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015233:Models, Statistical; D011057:Politics; D011336:Probability; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
references.citation: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1999 Sep 14;96(19):10572-4
references.pmid: 10485864