It Is All in the Eye of the Beholder: An Experimental Study on Political Ethnic Stereotypes in Flanders (Belgium)

Abstract

ABSTRACTEthnic minorities are in general strongly underrepresented in western democracies. A better understanding of this political underrepresentation requires a more profound insight in the role of voters: how do they perceive ethnic minority candidates as opposed to similar ethnic majority candidates? To answer this question we set up a survey experiment in Flanders (Belgium) in which we examined whether voters use ideological and issue competency stereotypes when evaluating ethnic minority (and majority) candidates. The results show that voters consider ethnic minority candidates as more leftist than majority candidates and that this trend is more profound for more rightist voters. We also find evidence that rightist voters tend to evaluate minority candidates as less competent than majority candidates whereas leftist voters tend to do the reverse. In sum, our results point to a potential electoral disadvantage for rightist minority candidates as their main pool of possible voters will turn away from them in favour of majority candidates who are perceived as more rightist and more competent.