Unlinking Linked Fate: The Push and Pull Factors of Group Consciousness

Abstract

Scholars have long debated the association between the marginalized status of Asian Americans and their group consciousness. In this paper, we propose that the perceived discrimination effect depends on situational cues, which we define as push and pull factors. Based on a pre-registered survey experiment on Asian Americans ($n$ = 2,000), we find that the effect of perceived discrimination on Asian American solidarity is conditional. Priming anti-Asian hate crimes "pushes" up Asian Americans’ expressed linked fate. This boost, however, is "pulled" back down when the hate crime news story is combined with exposure to an FBI report on threats from China. When the hate crime news story is combined with a message on Asian American political under-representation, we find no additional boost to Asian Americans' linked fate orientation. In additional analyses of open-ended responses, 49\% of respondents believed that Asian Americans would fail to unite due to their internal diversity, lack of political agency, and lack of outside support. We conclude that perceived marginalization can enhance group consciousness but with important constraints. Specifically, the effect can be short-lived when Asian Americans are reminded of their precarity to state-sanctioned ethnic targeting.