Social Desirability Effects and Support for a Female American President

Public opinion polls show consistently that a substantial portionof the American public would vote for a qualified female presidentialcandidate. Because of the controversial nature of such questions,however, the responses may suffer from social desirability effects.In other words, respondents may be purposely giving false answersas not to violate societal norms. Using an unobtrusive measurecalled the "list experiment," we find that public opinion pollsare indeed exaggerating support for a female president. Roughly26 percent of the public is "angry or upset" about the prospectof a female president. Moreover, this level of dissatisfactionis constant across several demographic groups. Received for publication June 5, 2006. Revision received September 11, 2006. Accepted for publication October 25, 2006.