Testing the Effects of White Identity Ownership

• In Event: It's My Party: Cues, the News, and Political Communication

Abstract

Identity appeals are as old as politics. Yet to many observers, the modern American political landscape seems more shaped by the forces of social identity than ever before. While sociopolitical identities have long played an important role in political communication theory, there have been fresh attempts to understand how politicians are using the modern media system to amplify the power of identity appeals. Recently Kreiss, Lawrence, and McGregor (2019) proposed the concept of identity ownership, to explain how candidates construct and perform identities as a means of appealing to different social groups. In this formulation, politicians use digital media to project “ownership” of particular identities, much in the same way they attempt to “own” particular issues or causes. Building on work in social identity theory (Hogg & Reid, 2006), Kreiss, Lawrence, and McGregor argue that “owning” a particular identity makes politicians appear more prototypical or more representative of the norms, values and characteristics of the group. Prototypical leaders are in turn more liked by and influential among fellow group members (Hogg & Reid, 2006). For example, in the American political system the constituency that supports the Republican party has become increasingly White. Accordingly, politicians have used performance of White identity as a means of garnering support and gaining influence among Republican voters.

This research proposal builds on this emerging work by experimentally testing the effects of identity ownership on identity-aligned partisans. More specifically, we ask whether politicians can increase their favorability and influence among White Americans by indicating support for public policies intended to benefit Whites as a group. We examine policies that have minimal economic consequences, but significant symbolic consequences (e.g., renting city space to a White Yoga Association). In line with identity ownership theory, we hypothesize that the effect of White identity ownership should only occur among Republicans, given that the Republican party is increasingly aligned with White identity (Mason, 2018). In contrast, White Democrats should view politicians who support pro-White public policies less favorably, despite the fact that it would benefit their racial ingroup. More broadly, this study aims to conduct a more careful empirical examination of how racial and political identities simultaneously moderate identity ownership effects.

A preliminary online experiment exposed participants to an online news article about a policy being considered by a local town council. The group who would benefit from the policy was manipulated to be either Whites, Blacks, Christians, or Muslims. Consistent with previous research, Republicans supported pro-White policies more than Democrats and were more likely to view such policies as a form of ingroup favoritism. Further, simply referring to a policy as benefiting Whites (vs. Blacks or Muslims) made participants assume that Republicans as a group would be more supportive than Democrats. This study replicated some of the previous findings related to the “ownership” of White identity by the Republican party.

In a follow-up experiment, we will test whether a politician who expresses pro-White policies is more favorably evaluated by Republicans than one who expresses support for an unrelated policy. We will examine the extent to which the strength of partisan and racial identification respectively moderate this effect. Findings will offer the first experimental test of some of the key assumptions of the identity ownership framework and promise to advance our understand of the mechanism through which “owning” a group identity provides politicians with communicative power.


References

Kreiss, D., Lawrence, R., G., McGregor, S., C. (2019) Political Identity Ownership: Symbolic
Contests to Represent Members of the Public. Manuscript submitted for publication.

Hogg, M. A., & Reid, S. A. (2006). Social Identity, Self-Categorization, and the Communication of Group Norms. Communication Theory, 16(1), 7–30. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2885.2006.00003.x

Mason, L. (2018). Uncivil agreement: How politics became our identity. University of Chicago Press.

Authors

• Daniel Lane, UC Santa Barbara

• Muniba Saleem, University of Michigan

• Afsoon Hansia, UC Santa Barbara