King's College London

Some reports suggest that female politicians face such behaviour more often than their male counterparts and it has even been reported that female politicians have begun to view toxic messages and harassment as just a part of the job.

This kind of hostility can deter women from remaining in politics and discourage those who haven't run for office from considering it. Politicians, including former UK Culture Secretary Nicky Morgan and former MPs Heidi Allen and Dehenna Davison have cited abuse and harassment as factors in their decisions to step down.

Such toxic behavior could ultimately hinder women's participation in public debate and democratic engagement overall.

In a new comparative study co-authored by Professor Anne Rasmussen, of King’s College London, and Dr Gregory Eady, from the University of Copenhagen, and published in the the American Political Science Review, more light is shed on the issue of toxicity in politics.

The researchers found that abuse directed at women in politics is viewed as more severe than those aimed at men, even if the nature and frequency of abuse received is similar. The study also explains why this occurs, showing that attacks on women are more likely to be perceived as motivated by misogyny and a desire to exclude women from public office, compared to abuse directed at men. In contrast, attacks on women are less likely than those on men to be seen as driven by other factors, such as policy disagreements.

“Consequently, the severity and potential costs of these behaviours are a function not only of their content and frequency, but also of the perceived motives and underlying prejudices that fuel them.

“Much like in many legal regimes where prejudice-driven psychological and physical violence is considered an aggravating factor in assessing the severity of a crime, so too do the politicians who may be exposed to it recognise that prejudices aggravate the harms of political toxicity on women politicians.”

Researchers carried out experiments with both politicians and citizens in the United States, Denmark, Belgium, and Chile. More than 2,800 elected politicians and 5,300 citizens were involved.

For the study, researchers sought to understand how conversations between citizens and politicians on social media affect how people perceive political toxicity directed towards women and men.

In one experiment, respondents were shown a pair of fictitious interactions between citizens and politicians on Twitter and asked to select which conversation was more toxic.

The researchers found that respondents were six per cent more likely to perceive an interaction as the most toxic if the targeted politician was a woman rather than a man and seven per cent likely to flag one interaction as toxic if the gender of the politician was referenced.

In a follow-up experiment, participants were then asked to select the motivation which they thought lay behind the toxic messages, such as; prejudice or discrimination; by a desire to discourage the politician from being in politics; by dislike of the politician’s party; by dissatisfaction with their own life; or by a desire to get a reaction.

Regardless of their content, respondents perceived that toxic messages sent to women were more strongly motivated by misogyny and a desire to force a politician from office than messages aimed at men.

“If these perceptions of misogyny are similar in real-world toxic interactions, it follows that political hostility will have more pronounced detrimental effects on women politicians than their counterparts who are men.

“There is substantial anecdotal documentation to suggest this, with numerous instances of women politicians citing the toxic environment associated with being a politician as a reason for their unwillingness to run, or re-run, for office.”