Stereotyping or Projection? How White and Black Voters Estimate Black Candidates' Ideology

Abstract

In studying the electoral fortunes of Black candidates, scholars have almost exclusively focused on White voters' attitudes. In this article, we employ a set of randomized experiments and nationally representative survey data to examine how both Black and White voters evaluate the ideology of racially diverse candidates. In line with previous research, we find evidence that White voters stereotype Black candidates as being more liberal than White candidates in three of our four tests. In contrast, we find that Black voters—particularly those who identify as politically conservative—project their own ideology onto Black candidates. These findings have electoral importance because, as we show, vote choice for both Blacks and Whites is substantially mediated by perceived ideological distance from a candidate. These findings also enable us to better understand the manner in which Black voters navigate a trade‐off between descriptive and substantive representation.