Ignorance is Bliss? Age, Misinformation, and Support for Women’s Representation

Bibliographic Data

ID6367274
AuthorsBarry C Burden (Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA), Barry Burden (0000-0002-6486-7039, corresponding author), Yoshikuni Ono (0000-0002-9222-4014, Professor in the Faculty of Political Science and Economics at Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan)
Year2021
Volume84
Issue4
Pages838-859
Publication date2021-06-04
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePublic Opinion Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0033-362X • E-ISSN: 1537-5331
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1093/poq/nfaa059
OpenAlexW3154697910
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited44

Most people overestimate how many women have been elected to Congress and state legislatures, but this misinformation reduces with age. Multivariate analysis of our original survey data confirms that young people are prone to overestimating how many seats are held by women, and this pattern is especially sharp among male respondents. In addition, a memory of being represented by a woman in the past tends to inflate overestimates further. Erroneous thinking among the young may produce an “ignorance is bliss” effect by reducing the apparent need to elect more women to office and raising levels of trust in government. In contrast, more realistic beliefs among older people make the dominance of men in public office more apparent and actionable

BLISS · Developmental psychology · Dominance (genetics · Ignorance · Legislature · Misinformation · Political science · Politics · Representation (politics · Computer Science · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Gender Politics and Representation · Psychology · Social and Intergroup Psychology · Law · Social Psychology

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