Political Ideology, Skin Tone, and the Psychology of Candidate Evaluations

Lerman, Amy E.; McCabe, Katherine T.; Sadin, Meredith

doi:10.1093/poq/nfu055

Cited by 38 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…While here we focus on black male candidates, our studies set a foundation for future research that further explores the extent to which candidate characteristics shape the effectiveness of a candidate's rhetorical strategy. Future research, for example, might do well to consider whether the results, which were obtained from a sample of non-black survey respondents, would differ for candidates attempting to appeal to black voters (Lerman, McCabe, and Sadin 2015). Moreover, research can also look beyond black male candidates.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Clear as Black and White: The Effects of Ambiguous Rhetoric Depend on Candidate Race

Piston

Krupnikov

Ryan

et al. 2018

The Journal of Politics

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Campaign advisors and political scientists have long acknowledged the benefits of ambiguous position-taking. We argue, however, that these benefits do not extend to black candidates facing non-black voters. When a white candidate makes vague statements, many of these voters project their own policy positions onto the candidate, increasing support for the candidate. But they are less likely to extend black candidates the same courtesy. We test these claims with an original two-wave survey experiment varying the race of male candidates on a national sample of non-black voters. We find that ambiguity boosts support for white male candidates but not for black male candidates. In fact, black male candidates who make ambiguous statements are actually punished for doing so by racially prejudiced voters. These results clarify limits on the utility of the electoral strategy of ambiguity and identify a key condition under which prejudice shapes voter behavior.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Clear as Black and White: The Effects of Ambiguous Rhetoric Depend on Candidate Race

Piston

Krupnikov

Ryan

et al. 2018

The Journal of Politics

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“…We take their cue to extend this research to get a better sense of the potential causal relationship between skin tone and vote choice as well as candidate evaluations. Although instead of focusing on skin tone across African‐American candidates, where there is existing research (see Lerman, McCabe, and Sadin, 2015), we decided to focus on potential skin tone effects across Latinx candidates.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethnic Cues, Latino Skin Tone, and Voter Preferences: An Experimental Test

Anderson

Bird

Kornrumpf

et al. 2020

Social Science Quarterly

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Objective Research suggests that voters rely on cognitive heuristics to simplify the evaluative process. Such heuristics include candidate race and other visible characteristics. We set out to test whether Americans use Latino ethnicity as a heuristic to evaluate candidates, and whether the darkness of Latino candidates’ skin tone influences these judgments. Finally, we examine individual‐level partisan differences in the application of these heuristics. Methods We leverage a large sample posttest experimental design that manipulates candidate ethnicity and skin tone. Results Some respondents in our sample clearly use ethnicity as a heuristic but skin tone does not seem to matter. Democrats evaluated Latino candidates, regardless of skin tone, more positively than they did a white candidate. Republicans seemed immune to ethnic cues or skin tone. Conclusion These results shed light on how Latino ethnicity shapes voter preferences, but these tests need to be extended to cross‐sectional data.

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“…One of the weaknesses of the work of Terkilsden and Weaver is that they relegate their samples to white subjects. The work of Lerman, McCabe, and Sadin (), on the other hand, examines both white and African Americans’ perceptions of candidates based on their skin tones. Using an experimental research design, these authors examined the participants’ perceptions of candidates based on their willingness to vote for the candidate and the evaluation of the candidates’ ideology.…”

Section: The Politics Of Colorism and Black Hairmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Lerman, McCabe, and Sadin () find that African Americans preferred a dark‐skinned candidate when compared to both a light‐skinned and white candidate. They concluded that African Americans prefer candidates that they deem to be “authentically black.” Authentic here translates into candidates that possess strong Afrocentric phenotypes.…”

Section: Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Melanated Millennials and the Politics of Black Hair

Orey

Zhang

2019

Social Science Quarterly

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Objective This research employs the phenotypic prototypicality framework to makes a connection between African‐American voters' perceptions of African‐American women candidates' appearances and candidate evaluations in contests with limited information. The primary focus is on the candidates' skin tone and hair texture. Methods The data consist of a convenience sample of 672 African‐American students from a Historically Black University in the Deep South. An experimental research design was employed to test whether African‐American candidates who possessed phenotypes that mirrored the prototypical African American were perceived differently when compared to those with more Eurocentric features. Each subject was randomly exposed to a stimulus that consisted of a brief campaign platform and an image of a light or dark woman donning either straight hair, twist outs or dreadlocks. Those subjects in the control group were exposed to an image of a dark male with short hair. Results African‐American students found the dark candidates to be more attractive when compared to their lighter counterparts, regardless of hairstyles. Candidates who possessed the prototypical Afrocentric appearance (i.e., dark skin and/or textured hair) were found to be more supportive of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, progressive policies and were perceived to be more hardworking, when compared to their lighter counterparts. Light‐skinned women, regardless of hairstyles, were perceived to be less supportive of Black Nationalist views. Conclusion The findings here run counter to the conventional wisdom associated with colorism, whereby African Americans have been deemed to possess self‐hatred by possessing a more positive bias toward women with a lighter hue and straight hair. In recent years, due to such events as police shootings of unarmed African‐Americans and the Black Lives Matter movement, Black Millennials have become more aware of the oppression and discrimination faced by many African Americans. This heightened level of consciousness, in tandem with the fact that they were born during an era when natural hairstyles were being popularized, has led them to embrace the aesthetic revolution that includes appreciating their melanated skin and kinky hair.

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Political Ideology, Skin Tone, and the Psychology of Candidate Evaluations

Cited by 38 publications

References 28 publications

Clear as Black and White: The Effects of Ambiguous Rhetoric Depend on Candidate Race

Clear as Black and White: The Effects of Ambiguous Rhetoric Depend on Candidate Race

Ethnic Cues, Latino Skin Tone, and Voter Preferences: An Experimental Test

Melanated Millennials and the Politics of Black Hair

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