The Impact of Race on Partisan Affect among Black and White Voters

• In Event: Negative Partisanship, Affective Polarization, and Partisan Hostility

Abstract

Does racial and ethnic identity impact partisan sentiment? Some existing studies of affective polarization explore how group identities like race play a role in affective polarization, but many others do not fully engage the impact of race on partisanship. I hypothesize that racial and ethnic identity makes a sizable impact on affective polarization (and partisan affect in general) due to the strong ties between race, parties, and partisanship in the U.S. context. Therefore, patterns in partisan sentiment will be different over time based on race, and experimental treatments related to partisan extremity that incorporate race will be especially effective in impacting partisan sentiment. I test my theoretical predictions with two studies: one focused upon observational data from the ANES and then an experiment testing whether treatments that incorporate the race of politicians will be as effective in eliciting partisan extremity. In doing so, I find evidence of differences in patterns of partisan sentiment among Black and white voters in the U.S. as well as variations in how Black and white partisans evaluate experimental treatments related to partisan conflict.

Author

• Raquel Centeno, University of Southern California