Experimental Evidence of the Sources of Support for Anti-Trafficking Policy

• In Event: Elections in the Land of Rising Inequality

Abstract

Political candidates, from contenders for local office in the southern United States to leaders running for president in Nigeria, have increasingly promoted anti-human trafficking stances as core pillars of their campaign platforms. The human rights implications of this shift are important to explore since many of these candidates will go on to hold positions in which they can implement anti-trafficking policies that affect victim and survivor outcomes. This project is the first in a series that explores how anti-trafficking agendas are politicized in vastly varied contexts, what political and social conditions incentivize candidates to adopt anti-trafficking platforms, and the consequences of the politicization of anti-trafficking agendas. My theory contains two key points. First, I argue that voters’ preferences about anti-trafficking policies and campaign platforms are shaped by preexisting biases and preferences. Second, I argue that candidates are aware of voters’ preferences and design anti-trafficking platforms with the goal of appealing to voters’ preferences. Normatively, this can be deeply troublesome. If campaign platforms or government policies are being designed to appeal to problematic preferences of voters that are based on biases, then this will result in inefficient and misguided government-run anti-trafficking programs. To test my theory, I look at the case of the United States. I use original data from a survey experiment (being run in January and February of 2020) that explores what attributes associated with human trafficking victims and survivors are most likely to elicit voter support for anti-human trafficking policies and candidates running on anti-trafficking platforms. Specifically, the survey experiment tests how the perceived race, gender, and national origin affect respondents’ likelihood of prioritizing anti-trafficking policies. I will then connect these quantitative data to qualitative data gathered from political campaigns across the southern United States. I will conduct semi-structured interviews with campaign leadership staff and as well as NGO staff working on anti-trafficking policy, as well as complete content analysis of campaign ads utilized by southern candidates running on anti-trafficking platforms. This multi-method approach will allow me to achieve two objectives. First, I will determine voter preferences and how these preferences are shaped by perceptions of race, gender, and national origin. Second, I will determine to what extent campaigns are aware of these voter preferences and design campaign platforms to appeal to these preferences.

Author

• Rachel Harmon, Emory University