The Next Link in the Chain Reaction: Symbolic Racism and Obama's Religious Affiliation

Abstract

Objectives. During the 2008 presidential election, questions about Barack Obama's religious affiliations spread rapidly over the Internet and became a regular story in the national news. Despite Obama's repeated testimony that he is a Christian, surveys indicated that a sizeable portion of the public believed that he was a Muslim, while others indicated that they were "unsure" of his religious allegiances. We evaluate the extent to which racial attitudes played a role in how the public viewed Obama's religious affiliations. Methods. We used nationally representative surveys conducted by the Pew Foundation and a state-level survey conducted in Arkansas. Results. Our findings suggest that attitudes about Obama's religious affiliation were significantly influenced by symbolic racism. Conclusions. These findings suggest that the American public dialogue about racial politics has evolved in recent years to include religious denominations.

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Dissecting Perceptions: Exploring the Determinants of Health‐Care Reform Preferences*

“…Thus, it may exhibit an influence in our study. Additionally, ideology is often considered an indicator of policy preferences (e.g., Sears et al., ), a driver of public opinion, or influences an individual's evaluation of a candidate (e.g., Maxwell, Dowe, and Shields, ). This is especially true given the Republican opposition to the ACA because of “Republican's visions of limited government intervention” (Lanford and Quadagno, :2).…”