Poster #33 - Racial Sympathy and Support for Capital Punishment: Revisiting the Impact of Americans' Views Toward Blacks

• In Event: Poster Session I

Abstract

Beliefs about race are key predictors of public support for capital punishment. In particular, among White Americans, racial resentment (or animus) has been linked to greater punitiveness toward offenders, including advocacy of the death penalty. Recently, however, Chudy (2015) has introduced the concept of “racial sympathy” or the extent to which Whites are concerned about the suffering of African Americans and has showed that this belief influences public policy positions. The current project builds on Chudy’s work to examine the impact of both racial sympathy and resentment on support for capital punishment and punitiveness more generally. To test this relationship, two national 2019 polls were conducted—one using MTurk (n = 500) and one using YouGov (n = 1,000). The theoretical and policy implications of the results are discussed.

Authors

• Kellie R. Hannan, Saint Ursula Academy

• Francis Cullen, University of Cincinnati

• Leah C. Butler, University of Cincinnati

• Alexander L. Burton, University of Cincinnati

• Amanda Graham, University of Cincinnati

• Velmer S. Burton, Jr., University of Arkansas at Little Rock