Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper explores how the gender gap in political knowledge varies over the course of presidential campaigns. Previous research has found that women are less attentive to and interested in politics than men. Hence the sex differences in attentiveness and knowledge would be expected to account for at least some of the gender gap in political knowledge. Over the course of presidential campaigns the information environment varies considerably, rising steadily as the general election approaches. Low-information voters are more likely to increase their knowledge levels as the cost of information acquisition is diminished, and one might expect that political knowledge will increase at a faster rate among those with lower levels of information as the information environment is enriched by the approach of the general election. Hence we expect that gap in political knowledge for men and women to decreases as one approaches the general election. Data from the 2000 and 2004 Annenberg National Annenberg Election Surveys is used to model political knowledge as a function of proximity to the general election, sex, and an interaction for sex and election proximity that captures how the gender gap changes over the course of the campaign.