I Get So Emotional: Race, Gender, and Anger

• In Event: Poster Session: Class and Inequality & Women and Politics Research
  In Poster Session: Poster Session: Identity Politics and Policies

Abstract

The experiment exposes a large national sample of White and Black subjects to messaging from fictitious Senate candidates who vary in expressions of anger, and whether the object of their anger is racialized. We examine differences in evaluations of candidates based on both candidate and subject race and gender, as well as differences in the object of the candidates’ expressed anger. Preliminary findings indicate that Black women face the greatest pushback for expressing anger. Black men and women candidates tend to be penalized by White subjects for anger appeals. And in contrast to Black men, Black women are often not rewarded by Black subjects for such appeals. In fact, African Americans are more likely to reward the White woman candidate for anger appeals than her Black counterpart—even when the anger is specifically directed towards racial disparities that harm Black people.

Authors

• Lafleur Stephens

• Davin Lanier Phoenix, University of California, Irvine

• Andrea Benjamin, University of Oklahoma