Influence Of Racial Attitudes Research Articles

Undermining the party: anti-black attitudes, presidential vote choice, and split-ticket voting among white voters

ABSTRACT American politics has entered, what Michael Tesler calls, a “most racial period,” causing racial attitudes to be increasingly salient. This shift provides an opportunity to examine the consequences to white Americans’ political behavior when their racial attitudes are easily activated. In this paper, we examine the influence of racial attitudes on (1) white Americans’ presidential vote choice and (2) how racial attitudes, in this period, may undercut the influence of partisanship on vote choice. We use data from the American National Election Studies Time Series Survey conducted from 2004 to 2020 to explore these questions. First, we find that anti-Black attitudes increasingly predict white vote choice. Next, we find that during this period, racially resentful, white Democrats became less likely to vote for the Democrat. This was not the same for white Republicans who, regardless of their racial attitudes, did not shift to the Democratic party. Finally, we find that white Republicans appear to hunker down and become significantly less likely to split their vote as they express more anti-Black attitudes. White Democrats become significantly more likely to jump ship as they endorse more anti-Black attitudes, revealing that racial attitudes were influential enough to overcome party loyalties during this period.

Revisiting Brown Versus Board of Education: Differences in School Context and the influence of Racial Attitudes on Academic Attainment and Civic Engagement among Black Americans across the Lifespan

Since Brown versus the Board of Education 60 years ago, educators and social and behavioral scientists have tried to identify factors related to better achievement for Black Americans. Since the desegregation of schools in the U.S., Black American students have reported lower grade point averages, standardized test scores, and graduation rates (Allen, 1992). Previous research has investigated school context and climate as well as the influence of racial attitudes on academic achievement. Findings suggest that positive student perceptions of school climate and context (e.g., pride, social support, relationships with a teacher, access to resources) were related to better academic outcomes (Hurley & Lustbader, 1997). However, the research on the influence of racial attitudes have been inconclusive (Chavous et al., 2003; Fordham & Ogbu 1986). Thus, the purpose of this study is two-fold. First, to explore whether racial attitudes were related to academic attainment and civic engagement, and second, to examine whether there are differences in perceptions in school pride and school climate for students in historically black high schools and historically white high schools. To assess the aforementioned research questions, thirty-three Black American high school graduates from a historically white high school and eighty-two Black Americans from historically black high schools were sampled. Spearman Rho correlations and Independent sample T-tests were run to assess the relationship between the following. 1) Racial attitudes, educational attainment, and civic engagement. 2) Differences in perceptions of school climate for Blacks at historically White and Black high schools. Findings reveal statistically significant associations between racial attitudes and educational attainment as well as civic engagement. Moreover, differences were also found in perceptions of climate across school types. Given these results, further research is needed to explore the influence of students’ perception of their school experience and racial attitudes upon educational and life outcomes.

What Can Political Psychology Learn from Implicit Measures? Empirical Evidence and New Directions

Implicit measures have become very popular in virtually all areas of basic and applied psychology. However, there are empirical and theoretical arguments that might raise doubts about their usefulness in research on political attitudes. Based on a review of relevant evidence, we argue that implicit measures can be useful to identify distal sources of political preferences in domains where self‐presentation may bias self‐reports (e.g., influence of racial attitudes on voting decisions). In addition, implicit measures of proximal political attitudes can contribute to the prediction of future political decisions by virtue of their capability to predict biases in the processing of decision‐relevant information (e.g., prediction of voting behavior of undecided voters). These conclusions are supported by research showing that implicit measures predict real‐world political behavior over and above explicit measures. The reviewed findings suggest that implicit measures may serve as a useful supplement to improve the prediction of election outcomes. Open questions and potential directions for future research are discussed.

Hell on Wheels: The Promise and Peril of America's Car Culture, 1900-1940 , and: Mobility Without Mayhem: Safety, Cars, and Citizenship (review)

Reviewed by: Hell on Wheels: The Promise and Peril of America's Car Culture, 1900-1940, and: Mobility Without Mayhem: Safety, Cars, and Citizenship Seth C. Bruggeman Hell on Wheels: The Promise and Peril of America's Car Culture, 1900-1940. By David Blanke. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. 2007. Mobility Without Mayhem: Safety, Cars, and Citizenship. By Jeremy Packer. Durham and London: Duke University Press. 2008. Although rising fuel prices may give credence to recent reports of runaway road rage, two new books suggest that driver incivility—both perceived and real—has plagued our nation's roads and highways ever since Americans first traveled them. David Blanke's Hell on Wheels examines how America's torrid love affair with the automobile complicated notions of risk and freedom during the first half of the twentieth century. Jeremy Packer's Mobility Without Mayhem takes up the story following World War II and argues that traffic enforcement has long sought to eliminate perceived social threats by extending models of good citizenship onto the road. Despite differing disciplinary footings, both studies take seriously sociologist Ulrich Beck's claims about the centrality of risk in western modernity. Similarly, both contribute to the growing field of automobility studies that seek to loosen our understanding of the automobile's complex sociocultural impact from its usual moorings in the histories of technology and economics. Blanke brings his historian's tool kit to bear on a remarkable breadth of sources ranging from safety studies to cartoons. He shows us that Americans have worried about safety since the dawn of the auto age and have long worked to craft effective traffic laws. Early debates concerning regulation reveal, however, that our love affair with the car complicated enforcement. Blanke demonstrates that the automobile's suburban promise, its Progressive appeal, and its shear kinetic thrills left us so smitten that we simply could not stand to regulate what, by the 1920s, had clearly become an unacceptably dangerous aspect of daily life. Progressives initially blamed traffic fatalities on inferior drivers bereft of intelligence and civic virtue. Later, blame shifted to the faulty roads, laws, and equipment that made accidents inevitable. Despite declining fatalities, today's proliferation of roadside memorials reminds us that danger is never far. Still, our lack of empathy for accident victims and our unwillingness to obey the very traffic laws we endorse indicates, Blanke concludes, that we are still blinded by our love for the car. [End Page 196] Packer picks up the story by investigating how Americans have reconciled safety demands with thrill seeking in the years since World War II. Grounded in communication studies, Packer trades statistics for media representations of automobility wherein he finds evidence of what Michelle Foucault termed "correct training." When post-war automobility threatened social norms, Packer shows us, state and business interests rushed in to maintain the status quo. Popular films, for example, encouraged women to think of campgrounds as extensions of their suburban domestic spaces rather than as nomadic alternatives. Authorities demonized hitchhiking because it discouraged car ownership and, consequently, subverted capitalist production. Packer discusses the cultural construction of outlaw bikers and renegade truckers in similar terms. Ultimately, he concludes, our willingness to tolerate over-regulation of perceived automotive deviance has rendered us all vulnerable to invasive surveillance in this post-9/11 era of racial profiling and trafficlight cameras. Despite their topical similarities, these books are very different in method and execution. Hell on Wheels is most remarkable for Blanke's impressive synthesis of primary materials. He provides valuable statistics on automobile use and accidents prior to 1940 (especially in chapter 2); insightful first-hand accounts by drivers, pedestrians, and police; and colorful vignettes on topics ranging from car camping to the bizarre psychological testing of cab drivers. Blanke's evidentiary thoroughness occasionally disrupts his narrative, but overall his writing is strong and his arguments are convincing. Despite good discussions of gender and class difference, readers will expect more here about the influence of racial attitudes on the social construction of risk. Given the relative inaccessibility of automobiles to black Americans during this period, one must wonder how all-encompassing America's love affair with the car really was. Mobility...

The influence of racial attitudes on British policy towards India during the First World War

(1986). The influence of racial attitudes on British policy towards India during the First World War. The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History: Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 91-113.