Dog-whistle effects may cut opposite ways across ideology

Evidence

Finally, because prior work suggests that individuals’ responses to racial appeals may be weaker or stronger among different social groups, we explored whether dog-whistle effects may be moderated by political ideology. Given scholars’ claims that veiled racial appeals have been a key tactic in Republican Party strategy over the past century (Haney-López 2014; Lamis 1990), we might expect that conservatives are more responsive to appeals reminiscent of familiar partisan rhetoric. Alternatively, we might expect dog-whistle effects to be stronger among political liberals, a group particularly likely to have internalized norms of egalitarianism and colorblindness, thus meeting the assumptions of racial priming theory. — Rachel Wetts and Robb Willer, Who Is Called by the Dog Whistle?…, 39

Categorization

• XREF: Directly frames the asymmetry-across-ideology question in the reader’s stated purpose: whether racially-encoded messages backfire among moderates/liberals while mobilizing the base. — connects to: Dog whistles activate latent racial prejudice while evading egalitarian norms — Rachel Wetts and Robb Willer, Who Is Called by the Dog Whistle?…, 5; The backfire effect does not occur symmetrically across the political spectrum — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 109

Related

• Dog-whistle appeals mobilize racially resentful white liberals, not conservatives (similarity 0.87)
• Subtly racialized appeals mobilize high-resentment liberals but leave moderates and conservatives unmoved. (similarity 0.85)
• Dog whistles activate latent racial prejudice while evading egalitarian norms (similarity 0.85)
• Implicit racial appeals mobilize resentment among liberals as well as conservatives (similarity 0.85)
• Prior exposure to racialized elite cues hardens opposite positions against novel racial appeals. (similarity 0.84)
• Liberal whites’ racial resentment is harnessed by racial appeals across ideologically opposed policy domains. (similarity 0.83)
• Racial appeals intensify racial-attitude influence on gun attitudes among liberals, not conservatives. (similarity 0.82)
• Rachel Wetts and Robb Willer — Who Is Called by the Dog Whistle? Experimental Evidence That Racial Resentment and Political Ideology Condition Responses to Racially Encoded Messages (similarity 0.82)
• Explicit and implicit racial cues boost racial resentment equally in whites (similarity 0.82)
• Racially encoded messages backfire among moderates high in racial resentment. (similarity 0.81)
• Implicit racial appeals produce an opposite-of-predicted backfire effect among low-resentment moderates. (similarity 0.81)
• The backfire effect does not occur symmetrically across the political spectrum (similarity 0.81)
• Dog-whistle theory may be outdated because overt racial prejudice is now socially acceptable. (similarity 0.79)
• Implicit racial appeals boosted liberal support for gun control (similarity 0.79)