Accounting for Multidimensionality in Identity Measurement

• In Event: Multidimensionality in Measurement and the Study of Racial and Ethnic Boundaries

Abstract

The United States has become more culturally pluralistic over time, and assessing the political preferences of groups has become an increasingly complex task. I argue that a key to understanding politics is the subjective measurement of identity that brings survey design into closer alignment with lived experience. I present findings from an original module on the 2020 CMPS (N=17,000) which employs a point allocation technique for the measurement of identity. I demonstrate that multidimensional strategies for identity measurement reveal additional information about the links between identity and policy preference using the specific examples of attitudes toward welfare, gun control, #BlackLivesMatter, and #MeToo. While past research has relied on “checked boxes” and comparisons across social categories such as race, class, and gender to demonstrate what groups believe and desire, my work brings intersectionality to the fore and highlights what is at stake when our assumptions about group preferences fail to account for multidimensional identity.

Author

• Amber D Spry, Brandeis University