Partisan Identity Salience and Racial Resentment

• In Event: The Centrality of Race in Public Opinion

Abstract

Recent studies have shown that whites have selected into the Democratic and Republican parties according to their racial attitudes. This study adds to a related emerging literature which asks whether, in addition to this sorting, partisans’ racial attitudes are also affected by their partisan identity. Specifically, this study posits that there are well-established norms surrounding racial attitudes within the two parties, which dictate that “good” Democrats are not racially resentful, whereas “good” Republicans should have a knee-jerk reaction to questions surrounding race that is more resentful. The study tests this hypothesis using a variety of data sources. First, using date-of-interview to proxy partisan identity salience, the study shows significant shifts in Democrats’ and Republicans’ racial resentment according to how close to the election day they are interviewed. As expected, the effects go in opposite directions for Democrats and Republicans, and the effects are significant after 2012, once norms around race are solidified as part of Democratic and Republican social identities. In addition, random assignment of the order the two parties appear in the answer choices to the ANES party identification question is used as a treatment to the salience of subjects’ partisan identities. This subtle bump in the salience of Democratic and Republican partisan identities has an effect on racial attitudes, once again in opposite directions for Democrats and Republicans. Finally, the study employs an experiment on a student sample where subjects are primed to either adhere to the norms associated with their partisan identity, or to ignore such norms. The experiment measures effects on political discussion, as well as racial resentment measures in a post-discussion survey. Results lend further credibility to the hypothesis that members of the Democratic and Republican parties have internalized a set of norms surrounding racial attitudes, and as a result partisans’ racial attitudes can fluctuate according to the saliency of their partisan identities.

Author

• Emily Anne West, University of Pittsburgh