Gender and support for expert advisers and elected officials in the US public sphere.

This article uses data from the US General Social Survey to examine the relationship between gender and support for different forms of cultural authority. An analysis of public attitudes about expert advisers and elected officials involved in policy decisions related to science reveals that women assign more influence than men to experts in decisions about global warming and stem cell research but not genetically modified food. In contrast, men assign more influence than women to elected leaders across policy domains. Importantly, gender differences in support for expert advisers and elected leaders are independent of variation in more general attitudes about science and politics. Overall, this article suggests that there are underlying differences in men's and women's attitudes about cultural authority and it highlights the importance of gender in understanding the political legitimacy of scientists in the United States.