Darren W. Davis

Assessing the Validity of the Postmaterialism Index

Ingleharts postmaterialism thesis describes an individual-level process of value change. Little attention has been devoted to validating the responses to his postmaterialist-materialist index. The aggregate-level distributions may appear to reflect a postmaterialist-materialist dimension, even if at the individual level responses on the questions making up the index are random. The logic of the survey questions used for the index defines a baseline against which the actual distribution of responses can be compared. Using such a standard, we find that individual responses are not constrained by an underlying value dimension, in the sense that the observed patterns of responses increasingly do not differ from what one would expect by chance. Furthermore, as one would expect for a random variable, index scores are virtually unexplainable as a dependent variable, and they cannot be used to predict support for various political and social issues, said to flow from attitudes measured by the index.

Stereotype Threat and Race of Interviewer Effects in a Survey on Political Knowledge

Social desirability is generally thought to underlie the propensity for survey respondents to tailor their answers to what they think would satisfy or please the interviewer. While this may in fact be the underlying motivation, especially on attitudinal and opinion questions, social desirability does not seem to be an adequate explanation for interviewer effects on factual questions. Borrowing from the social psychology literature on stereotype threat, we test an alternative account of the race-ofinterviewer effects. Stereotype threat maintains that the pressure to disconfirm and to avoid being judged by negative and potentially degrading stereotypes interferes with the processing of information. We argue that the survey context contains many parallels to a testing environment in which stereotype threat might alter responses to factual questions. Through a series of framing experiments in a public opinion survey and the reliance on the sensitivity to the race of the interviewer, our results are consistent with expectations based on a theory of “stereotype threat.” African American respondents to a battery of questions about political knowledge get fewer answers right when interviewed by a white interviewer than when interviewed by an African American interviewer. The observed differences in performance on the political knowledge questions cannot be accounted for by differences in the educational background or gender of the respondents.

The Antipathy of Black Nationalism: Behavioral and Attitudinal Implications of an African American Ideology

ideology. Controlling for the effects of age, demographic factors, social identity, and measurement artifacts, a strong black nationalist ideology is associated with greater disaffection toward whites, but not toward gays, black conservatives, lesbians, middle-class blacks, or feminists. A black nationalist belief system also correlates with intense perceptions of racism in society and less support for systemic means for combating per? ceived racial injustice. One of the striking themes in the scholarly literature on national ism is that nationalism is both a curse and a blessing. It promotes a sense of identity, acknowledges the legitimacy of different cul? tures and histories, brings awareness to injustice and oppression, is a psy? chological mechanism used to defend against such injustice, and it ex? presses a legitimation of common legal and human rights, obligations, and failings of existing institutions (Smith 1991). Yet, nationalism is a curse in that it breeds political and social intolerance and conflict (Brass 1991; Brown 1993; Dandeker 1998; Diamond and Plattner 1994; Lake and Rothchild 1996). As the level of group consciousness?political, cultural, economic, social, territorial, or religious?crystallizes into a desire for selfrealization or in reaction to exploitation, inequality, or injustice, support for basic human and democratic rights tends to disappear and is replaced by a more minacious view of outside groups, members of the dominant culture, and the political system. Previous research shows some support for the relationship between nationalism and intolerance. Marx (1967) found that black nationalists were almost twice as likely to express anti-Semitic, including anti-white, sentiments than any other civil rights group and they were the most intol? erant. Nationalists were also seen as less militant but also more reserved in acting on their beliefs. Gurin, Hatchett, and Jackson (1989) show that black nationalism is related to the rejection of whites, and it is the most important determinant of a black political voice. Recent research by Gibson and Gouws (2000), investigating the political consequences of so? cial identity, shows that a strong group or social identity leads to intoler? ance. Social identity does not lead to antipathy per se, but instead indi? viduals with a heightened group identity, such as that involved in the development of nationalism and national identity formation, develop atti? tudes that foster intolerance. Individuals who strongly believe in their

Reexamining Racial Resentment: Conceptualization and Content

There is an ongoing debate in the racial attitudes literature about the degree to which new racism measures actually tap negative racial beliefs. Racial resentment is one construct that has been criticized on such grounds. To date, Kinder and Sanders (1996) have proposed the most commonly utilized measure of racial resentment, which is largely based on a similar construct—symbolic racism. The authors enter this discussion by proposing and testing an alternative racial resentment measure, one that is more explicit. They analyze data from two convenience samples of college students and from two national adult samples. They find the Explicit Racial Resentment (EXR) measure to have strong measurement properties and associations with known correlates of racial attitudes, suggesting promise as a survey-based indicator of underlying racial resentment.

The Political and Social Relevancy of Malcolm X: The Stability of African American Political Attitudes

Typically, the political and ideological foundations of media-related events hold little significance for the alteration of political attitudes and behavior But this weak relationship may be attributed to weak stimuli, and the influence of different media events is likely to be dependent upon the strength with which certain political attitudes and beliefs are held We examine the extent to which a major media event-the film Malcolm X and its reinforcement in the media-influences political attitudes among African Americans We find that individuals who saw the film and received reinforcement from a televised documentary became more racially conscious, more concerned about race relations, and more knowledgeable about Malcolm X the man When age differences in the perceptions of Malcolm X are considered separately, younger African Americans born after the civil rights movement appear more positively disposed toward him

HOW RACIAL ATTITUDES AND IDEOLOGY AFFECT POLITICAL RIGHTS FOR FELONS

This research examines the extent to which negative attitudes toward African Americans influence public reactions to restoring political rights to felons. We argue that race-neutral policies, such as felon disenfranchisement laws, are non-separable from racial considerations, as images of criminals and felons are typically associated with Blacks. Such attitudes produce collateral consequences for felons, hampering the restoration of their full political rights and, ultimately, their citizenship. Predispositions, such as racial attitudes and political ideology, provide both racial and nonracial justifications for supporting these laws, yet, there are no empirical accounts of their relational effects on opinion toward felons’ rights. Using nationally representative survey data, we find that racialized resentment and ideology exert the most influence on the reactions to policies seeking political rights for felons as well as beliefs about the value of doing so. Consistent with much of the literature on attitudes toward ameliorative racial policies, higher levels of racial resentment strongly predict lower support for felons’ political rights among both conservatives and liberals, yet, racial resentment is most influential among liberals. Conservatives exhibit the highest levels of racial resentment, but its impact is depressed more by agreement on both racial attitudes and opposition to political rights of felons.

Racial Resentment and Targeted Anger at Barack Obama and the Federal Government

We use a survey experiment embedded in the 2010 Cooperative Congressional Election Study (CCES) to examine the extent to which anger towards the federal government and President Barack Obama are affected by racial resentment. We randomized two questions asking CCES respondents their personal anger at the Obama and the federal, and their anger at the actions of Obama and the federal government. While media accounts suggested the American public was extremely “angry” during the first years of the Obama administration, we find significantly more anger targeted at government and its actions than Obama and his actions. However, racial resentment colored personal anger toward Obama but not personal anger at the federal government. Resentment affected anger at the actions of both Obama and the federal government. These results suggest that angry sentiments toward Obama and his actions, as well as the actions of the federal government while he is the commander-in-chief, are all affected by racial attitudes.

Racial Resentment and the Restoration of Voting Rights for Felons

The conference chairs call for papers examining “The Politics of Rights,” including how “rights are defined, contested, contracted or expanded, enshrined into law, and rolled back.” In keeping with this theme we propose to present a paper that investigates how racial resentments influence public attitudes towards the restoration of rights to felons. We analyzed the extent to which racial resentment, and beliefs about sociotropic consequences of actions to restore voting rights, shape opinions and beliefs about the restoration of the franchise to felons. We posit that racial stereotypes are instinctively tied to perceptions of who is more likely to be a felon in the United States, and thus individuals use their racial beliefs to make decisions about the deservingness of voting rights for all felons. We proposed to many in the public employ the egalitarian belief that no one should receive special considerations (e.g., voting rights) if they have been convicted. In this way the denial of voting rights to felons appears justified on a moral basis despite being founded on racial schema. Thus, racial resentments toward African Americans should predict support for the restoration of voting rights for felons, as well as beliefs about whether such restoration is good or bad for society. Our data come from the 2010 Cooperative Congressional Election Study (N=1,000), which includes a newly developed “explicit racial resentment” scale. The results show that racial resentment is a significant predictor of opposition to Congressional action to restore voting rights, even among those who agree that restoring the franchise would better society.