Emily West, University of Pittsburgh

Date: 

Friday, March 26, 2021, 12:00pm to 1:30pm

How Does Partisan Identity Affect Racial Attitudes and Political Discussion Among Whites?

Research suggests that white Americans sort into the two major parties largely according to their racial attitudes. This project first probes the extent to which the relationship between partisan identity and racial attitudes remains uni-directional in more contemporary political contexts. Using how close a subject’s interview date was to election day as a proxy for shifts in the salience of partisan identities, as well as a series of experiments which prime partisan identity, this research shows that when their partisan identity is made more salient, Republicans become significantly more racially resentful, while there is no effect on Democratic racial attitudes. The project further investigates the implications of this finding with a large-scale field experiment involving moderated political discussions over Zoom. First, partisan identity salience is manipulated and transcripts are analyzed in order to understand how partisan identity affects Americans’ ability to discuss politics, particularly issues surrounding race, with both co-partisans and out-partisans. In the second part of this field-experimental study, the discussions are considered the treatment, and control subjects simply answer all pre and post surveys. This allows for an understanding of the effect of racial discussion with co-partisans and out-partisans on racial attitudes, beginning to develop our understanding of how to mitigate the inflammatory effect that Republican partisan identity has on racial attitudes.