Race/Ethnicity in Candidate Experiments: a Meta-Analysis and the Case for Shared Identification

Education as identity? A meta-analysis of education-based in-group preferences in candidate choice experiments

“…Our contribution speaks to and combines two separate, often unconnected, schools of inquiry. This study advances our understanding of elite-level representation (Campbell & Cowley, 2014;Carnes & Lupu, 2023) and how candidate electability is causally influenced (or biased) by demographic characteristics (Carnes & Lupu, 2016a;Eshima & Smith, 2022;Schwarz & Coppock, 2022;van Oosten et al, 2023). It connects this literature with scholarship that seeks to understand education not only a means of political stratification but as a source of social identity (Stubager, 2009;Van Noord et al, 2022).…”

“…Our location strategy involved searches on Google Scholar using "candidate choice", "conjoint experiment", "education" and "voter candidate preferences". This initial search was complemented by cross-referencing studies reported in Eshima and Smith (2022), Schwarz and Coppock (2022) and van Oosten et al (2023) and surveying academic peers via social media interactions. Mirroring the approach of Schwarz and Coppock (2022), we include all candidate choice conjoint experiments regardless of their sampling procedures and limit the study to conjoints 4 , as the multiple and simultaneous randomisation of conjoint attributes afforded by this design allows identification of the effect of attribute values independently of adjacent attribute values, which are normally held constant in conventional experimental designs.…”

“…We live in a "Diploma Democracy", where the corridors of our democratic institutions are inhabited by representatives who are more educated than the average citizen (Bovens & Wille, 2017). This presents an education paradox in politics, as existing studies have consistently shown descriptive representation is desirable, in that we tend to prefer candidates who are "like us" in socio-demographic terms (Campbell & Cowley, 2014;van Oosten et al, 2023).…”

Political narratives in representation: Maiden speeches of ethnic minority members of parliament

“…Their decisions will be penalized by some and applauded by others. Electorally, it may be wise to blend in to prevent accusations of clientelism (Rosenberger & Stöckl, 2018) and to appeal to a larger group of (majority white) voters (Brown & Gershon, 2016a;Van Oosten et al, 2023), although this may lead to charges of 'selling out' (Beatty, 2015). MPs' references to a minority identity may signal empathy and show (intentions of) substantive representation to work on behalf of certain constituencies (De Jong & Mügge, 2023a, 2023b.…”