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A Double-Edged Sword: The Model Minority and Perpetual Foreigner Stereotypes, Racial Triangulation, and Asian American Partisan Identification

Sun, September 13, 2:00 to 3:30pm MDT (2:00 to 3:30pm MDT), TBA

Abstract

electoral constituency in future elections (Budiman 2020). Although most Asian Americans support Democrats, at least 25% voted for Republican candidates in national elections since 1992. Why do some Asian Americans support the Republican Party, despite the fact that the party is increasingly unwelcoming to immigrants and racial minorities? More generally, what explains variation in partisan views among Asian Americans? This project explores whether Asian Americans’ views about their own racial group, relative to other racial groups, shape their partisan views. We predict that internalizing stereotypes of Asian Americans as “model minorities” in contrast to Latinos and African Americans, leads to Republican views. Alternatively, internalizing stereotypes of Asian Americans as “perpetual foreigners” leads to Democratic views. We test these hypotheses with observational and experimental studies. First, using data from a 2020 original survey of Asian Americans and the 2016 Post-election National Asian American Survey, we find that belief in the model minority stereotype is associated with favorable views of the Republican Party and self-perception as a perpetual foreigner is associated with favorable views of the Democratic Party. Second, we will conduct a survey experiment testing whether priming Asian Americans with hypothetical reports emphasizing the model minority and perpetual foreigner stereotypes influences partisan views. Our findings will have implications for understanding partisanship through group positioning in the American racial hierarchy.

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