Implicit and explicit attitudes toward African Americans and Barack Obama did not substantively change during Obama’s presidency
Barack Obama is perhaps the most well-known exemplar of African Americans.However, the extent to which he has impacted attitudes toward AfricanAmericans remains unclear. Using cross-sectional data (*N *> 2,200,000),the present study examined changes in racial attitudes and attitudes towardObama during the first seven years of Obama’s presidency. Attitudes showedno evidence of substantive change. After accounting for shifts in sampledemographics, results showed an increase in implicit anti-Black attitudesand no change in explicit anti-Black attitudes. Participation dateexplained only 0.01% of the variance in implicit attitudes. Correspondinganalyses of attitudes toward Obama (*N *> 210,000) indicated no change inimplicit attitudes but increasing negativity toward Obama in explicitattitudes. Date accounted for only 0.01% of explicit attitude variance.Daily and monthly means across both samples were largely unrelated.Attitudes toward African Americans in general and Obama specifically showedlittle change or correspondence during Obama’s presidency.