Effects of regular and joke dog whistles on perceptions of political candidates

Our experiment showed a scenario where a White politician used a racist dog whistle (DW) when referring to his Black opponent. We used pilot data to determine DW statements and then tested whether different DWs (joke or regular) would affect perceptions of candidates based on participants’ levels of subtle and explicit racism compared to a comment without racial undertones. Our results indicated that while neither DW affected perceptions of the Black candidate based on participants’ levels of subtle racism, when a regular DW was used, subtle racism was positively associated with more positive perceptions of the White candidate. Our findings can broadly be explained within the context of modern racism and the suppression justification model of prejudice. The presence of a DW served as a prime, allowing those who have subtle anti-Black prejudice to express it through more positive personal perceptions of the White candidate. Without opportunities to justify the expression of their subtle prejudice (i.e. have a non-prejudice reason to dislike the candidate), the participants’ did not report more negative perceptions of the Black candidate. However, there was a “backlash” and participants were less likely to consider voting for the White candidate, particularly when he used a joke DW.

Diversity Initiatives and White Americans’ Perceptions of Racial Victimhood

Seven experiments explore whether organizational diversity initiatives heighten White Americans’ concerns about the respect and value afforded toward their racial group and increase their perceptions of anti-White bias. The presence (vs. absence) of organizational diversity initiatives (i.e., diversity awards, diversity training, diversity mission statements) caused White Americans to perceive Whites as less respected and valued than Blacks and to blame a White man’s rejection for a promotion on anti-White bias. Several moderators were tested, including evidence that Whites were clearly advantaged within the organization, that the rejected White candidate was less meritorious than the Black candidate, that promotion opportunities were abundant (vs. scarce), and individual differences related to support for the status hierarchy and identification with Whites. There was little evidence that these moderators reduced Whites’ perceptions of diversity initiatives as harmful to their racial group.

Misinformation and the Justification of Socially Undesirable Preferences

Attempts to correct political misperceptions often fail. The dominant theoretical explanation for this failure comes from psychological research on motivated reasoning. We identify a novel source of motivated reasoning in response to corrective information: the justification of socially undesirable preferences. Further, we demonstrate that this motivation can, under certain conditions, overpower the motivation to maintain congruence. Our empirical test is a national survey experiment that asks participants to reconcile partisan motivations and the motivation to justify voting against a racial minority candidate. Consistent with our argument, racially prejudiced participants dismiss corrections when misinformation is essential to justify voting against a black candidate of their own party, but accept corrections about an otherwise identical candidate of the opposing party. These results provide new insight into the persistence of certain forms of political misinformation.

Conditioned by Race: How Race and Religion Intersect to Affect Candidate Evaluations

While it is becoming increasingly clear that religious cues influence voter evaluations in the United States, work examining religious cues has largely overlooked the conditioning role of race. We employed a 2 × 2 (White candidate vs. Black candidate) × (racial cues vs. no racial cues) online experiment with a national sample (N= 397; 56% white, 46% black) where participants were exposed to a fictitious congressional candidate's webpage. Results show that White participants expected the religious candidate to be more conservative, regardless of race, while Black participants did not perceive a difference in ideology between the religious and non-religious Black candidates. Additionally, when it comes to candidate favorability, religious cues matter more to White participants, while racial cues are most important to Black participants. These findings provide evidence that religious and racial cues activate different assumptions among White and Black citizens.

Runoff Voters Will Do the Darndest Things: An Analysis of the 2008 Georgia Democratic Senate Runoff

Testing the frontrunner loses myth and minority loses myth, this paper examines the 2008 Georgia Democratic Senate runoff between Vernon Jones and Jim Martin. Despite winning 40 per-cent of the primary vote, Jones lost in the runoff to Jim Martin. Methods: We use a variety of data to determine what factors were having the greatest effect on the election. Results: Vernon Jones's strongest support came from the rural counties of central and southern Georgia. While Jones did win high levels of support in counties with large black populations, the fact that Jones was not performing as well in counties in metro Atlanta highlights that controversies surrounding Jones may have been playing a larger role than race. Conclusions: The lack of black voter turnout in the runoff illustrates the problems that even a black candidate has in motivating black voters to return for the runoff.

The Geography of Black Candidate Electoral Success

In this manuscript, we reexamine claims about the geography of electoral success of African American candidates. Barack Obama’s historic election in 2008 prompted journalists, partisans, and scholars to review prior notions of where African American candidates can successfully contend for elected office. Although Obama’s victory is just an anecdotal national example (albeit an important one), we review the available evidence at the state level to understand what factors might impede African American electoral success. Heretofore, the literature focused on the density of the black population, and the interconnectedness of region and white racial attitudes. This paper shows that these old standbys can no longer explain African American electoral success.