Does racism and sexism undermine Black and female politicians?
Using large samples that are nationally diverse or nationally representative (total N = 44,836), my research presents evidence that citizens’ prejudice does not usually benefit or undermine politicians who are from a particular demographic group, as many past studies assumed; instead, citizens’ prejudice is associated with support for conservative politicians and opposition to liberal politicians, regardless of politicians’ demographic background. For example, in two studies, I show that racism and sexism negatively predict support for liberal politicians, such as Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Bernie Sanders, and positively predict support for conservative politicians, such as Donald Trump, Ben Carson, and Carly Fiorina, regardless of their race and gender. I experimentally confirmed this overall pattern in a study where participants evaluate a hypothetical politician. Using data collected between 1972 and 2016, I show that, historically, the predictive effect of racism and sexism on support for politicians in general is moderated by politicians’ perceived ideology. Together, these studies suggest that the way prejudice is related to support for a politician is primarily moderated (determined) by the politician’s political ideology, not the politician’s demographic background. This line of research highlights the often-overlooked role of politicians’ ideology, clarifying theories that explain how citizens’ prejudice is translated into their political preferences.
|
|
How do White Americans react to the population decline of Whites?
|
With my colleague, I conducted two studies looking at whether perceived numerical decline in the White population translate into a perceived existential threat to Whites, leading in turn to defensive reactions. In the first study, we used correlational data to show that a collective existential threat explains the relationship between perceptions of White population decline and defensive political reactions (i.e., racial biases and conservatism) among Whites. In the second study, we replicate the results of Study 1 experimentally. We manipulated the perceptions of White population decline and growth. Our results suggest that Whites’ perceptions of the ingroup’s numerical decline have a unique effect on their racial and political attitudes via heightened feelings of collective existential threat.
|
What type of people are far-right extremists?
What type of people are more likely to be far-right extremists? To answer this question, I did five studies. I found that White Americans who think their racial background is very important to their self-concept tend to have higher levels of (self‐reported) far‐right extremism. I also found that the effect is particularly strong for people who believe that society should be more hierarchical (i.e., people who have higher levels of "social dominance orientation").
|
|