Representative bureaucracy and its symbolic effect on citizens: a conceptual replication

Representative bureaucracy has been a topic of research for over half a century, but only recently studied experimentally. Initial empirical findings from two prior experiments–one involving policing, the other recycling–showed gender representation effects on citizens’ trust and cooperation. In this conceptual replication, we examine gender representation effects in another policy domain: emergency preparedness. However, despite using a similar sample and experimental paradigm, we find no effects. These null findings are important, as they suggest that the symbolic effects of gender representation may be policy-specific–and that replication is needed to test the boundary conditions of previously reported results.