Steered by ethnicity and/or SES cues? An examination of party selectors’ stereotypes about ethnic minority aspirants

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study discusses whether party selectors’ stereotypes about ethnic minority aspirants help to explain the political under-representation of ethnic minorities. Specific attention goes to the question of how the social stereotype of ethnic minorities as low socioeconomic status citizens affects political stereotypes about ethnic minority aspirants. This innovative intersectionality research is built on an original survey experiment conducted among Flemish party selectors. Ethnic minority aspirants are perceived as more leftist than majority aspirants, but not as less competent or trustworthy. Furthermore, the effects of aspirants’ ethnicity are not moderated by their socioeconomic status. The implications are twofold. First, discrimination against ethnic minority aspirants based on their ethnic background is only likely to occur among rightist party selectors. Second, that ethnic minority aspirants with a high socioeconomic status are perceived as equally competent than their ethnic majority counterparts contradicts previous assumptions that ethnic minority aspirants need to be better qualified than ethnic majority aspirants. In sum, this study nuances previous concerns that party selector discrimination is an important barrier for the representation of ethnic minorities.