Laura Lazarus-Gardner, PhD

This study develops and begins to test the hypothesis that considerations of romance and sexual attractiveness may impede women's expression of political ambition (in the sense of either interest in holding public office or willingness to disclose such interest). As this is a very new area of research, and as the subject is difficult to test, this study does not draw firm conclusions, but the initial data results suggest at least some support for the hypothesis. It does seem from these two… Show more

This study develops and begins to test the hypothesis that considerations of romance and sexual attractiveness may impede women's expression of political ambition (in the sense of either interest in holding public office or willingness to disclose such interest). As this is a very new area of research, and as the subject is difficult to test, this study does not draw firm conclusions, but the initial data results suggest at least some support for the hypothesis. It does seem from these two experiments that politics makes one less popular as a date or mate choice, and that women who hypothetically hold office would be less likely to reveal that fact to a potential sexual or romantic partner. Further research is needed to both develop the measurements for this exciting new area of study and confirm these initial results. Show less

This article employs a content analysis to investigate whether and how the violent woman archetype in action film changed from 1960 to 2014. We find a trend toward hypersexualized female action leads (FALs), starting in the 2000s. This trend is in line with the broader social trends of hypersexualization during this period, evidenced in a variety of other media sources. We then combine these findings with existing research to discuss the likely affects on viewers’ attitudes and beliefs. We… Show more

This article employs a content analysis to investigate whether and how the violent woman archetype in action film changed from 1960 to 2014. We find a trend toward hypersexualized female action leads (FALs), starting in the 2000s. This trend is in line with the broader social trends of hypersexualization during this period, evidenced in a variety of other media sources. We then combine these findings with existing research to discuss the likely affects on viewers’ attitudes and beliefs. We suggest that the trend toward hypersexualizing FALs has harmful public health affects and is part of a broader cultural backlash against gender equity. Public Health Significance Statement: This study finds a trend toward hypersexualization of female protagonists in action cinema that contributes to the cultural normalization of female objectification. This normalization has been linked to clinical depression, habitual body monitoring, diet restriction, symptoms of anorexia and bulimia, social physique anxiety, shame about bodily functions, inhibited cognitive functioning, diminished motor skills, diminished sexual pleasure, lower self-esteem, dimin- ished personal efficacy, and lower overall well-being for women. Show less

Dramatic changes in communication technology and the information environment in recent years have changed not only our daily lives, but also campaign communications. With each new election cycle, candidates seem to add to the expanding list of communication technologies used—smartphones, Facebook, blogs, and the like—to get their message to intended recipients. In this essay, we review the limited, but growing, research that examines candidates’ use of niche campaign communications… Show more

Dramatic changes in communication technology and the information environment in recent years have changed not only our daily lives, but also campaign communications. With each new election cycle, candidates seem to add to the expanding list of communication technologies used—smartphones, Facebook, blogs, and the like—to get their message to intended recipients. In this essay, we review the limited, but growing, research that examines candidates’ use of niche campaign communications, conceptualized here as any communication medium candidates employ to directly and narrowly target a particular audience. There is a tendency to think of the use of new technologies as a supplemental communication tool for conducting politics as usual. The authors suggest, however, that new communication technologies have changed not only how candidates communicate, but also whom they contact and what they are willing to say. In this way, niche communications have fundamentally changed candidate strategy and campaign dynamics. Show less

Longitudinal or panel surveys offer unique benefits for social science research, but they typically suffer from attrition, which reduces sample size and can result in biased inferences. Previous research tends to focus on the demographic predictors of attrition, conceptualizing attrition propensity as a stable, individual-level characteristic—some individuals (e.g., young, poor, residentially mobile) are more likely to drop out of a study than others. We argue that panel attrition reflects both… Show more

Longitudinal or panel surveys offer unique benefits for social science research, but they typically suffer from attrition, which reduces sample size and can result in biased inferences. Previous research tends to focus on the demographic predictors of attrition, conceptualizing attrition propensity as a stable, individual-level characteristic—some individuals (e.g., young, poor, residentially mobile) are more likely to drop out of a study than others. We argue that panel attrition reflects both the characteristics of the individual respondent as well as her survey experience, a factor shaped by the design and implementation features of the study. In this article, we examine and compare the predictors of panel attrition in the 2008–2009 American National Election Study, an online panel, and the 2006–2010 General Social Survey, a face-to-face panel. In both cases, survey experience variables are predictive of panel attrition above and beyond the standard demographic predictors, but the particular measures of relevance differ across the two surveys. The findings inform statistical corrections for panel attrition bias and provide study design insights for future panel data collections. Show less