The value of outside support for male and female politicians involved in a political sex scandal.

This research examined how third party statements impact the evaluation of male and female politicians caught in a scandal (i.e., extramarital affair). Governor's sex was crossed with three types of support statements: third party supportive (TPS), third party non-supportive (TPNS), and governor self-supportive (GSS). In Experiment 1, a female politician was evaluated more positively than a male politician. The TPS and the GSS conditions were both evaluated more positively than the TPNS condition. Experiment 2's design was similar to Experiment l's, except it involved multiple affairs. In Experiment 2, participants used the third party's statements as an information source and thus reduced their use of gender stereotypes in the TPS and TPNS conditions compared to the GSS condition. We also found that male respondents gave more negative evaluations of the female governor than female respondents. Implications for the gender stereotype and social influence literatures are discussed.