Voters in Japan less likely to support female politicians wearing masks: Survey

TOKYO – Voters are less likely to support female politicians wearing face masks, while no such effect was observed for their male counterparts, a study by a Japanese university research team found.

The findings, published in January ahead of

the Feb 8 general election,

underscored the differences in how the public perceived politicians following the Covid-19 pandemic, when wearing masks became more common for politicians across the world.

“Differences in how masked faces are perceived could work against women candidates,” said Dr Kiho Muroga, an associate professor of labour economics at Kyushu University, who jointly conducted the survey with Assistant Professor Charles Crabtree, then affiliated with Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.

She urged female politicians to find creative ways to communicate during election campaigns and encouraged voters to be mindful of bias when judging women politicians.

The survey was conducted in August 2020 with 1,508 people in Japan aged 18 to 74 who were shown photos of politicians, such as the late prime minister Shinzo Abe and Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, with and without masks.

Respondents rated the images on a five-point scale for support, attractiveness, competence, intelligence, strength and trustworthiness.

No decline was observed in any of the assessment points for male politicians; however, for female politicians, there was a statistically significant drop in terms of support. KYODO NEWS