Dog whistles activate latent racial prejudice while evading egalitarian norms

Evidence

Many scholars argue that messages such as these—ones in which race is not explicitly mentioned but instead is cued through coded language or accompanying visuals—subtly connect racial prejudice to whites’ views of policies and candidates, a process commonly referred to as “dog whistling” (Haney-López 2014; Mendelberg 2001; Valentino, Hutchings, and White 2002). Dog-whistle effects are hypothesized to be central to the way race operates in contemporary American politics, with white Americans’ latent racial prejudices brought to bear on their policy attitudes despite strong norms of egalitarianism and colorblindness in American political culture (Mendelberg 2001). — Rachel Wetts and Robb Willer, Who Is Called by the Dog Whistle?…, 5

Categorization

• DEFINE: A clean definition of ‘dog whistling’ plus Mendelberg’s norm-of-egalitarianism framework that the whole paper tests.
• XREF: connects to: Dog-whistle effects may cut opposite ways across ideology — Rachel Wetts and Robb Willer, Who Is Called by the Dog Whistle?…, 39; Color-blind rhetoric functioned as an arsenal of racist dog whistles — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America…, 488; External social norms may be the strongest cues suppressing prejudiced expression — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice: Fifty Years…, 2120 (+6 more)

Related

• Dog-whistle effects may cut opposite ways across ideology (similarity 0.85)
• Dog-whistle theory may be outdated because overt racial prejudice is now socially acceptable. (similarity 0.82)
• Color-blind rhetoric functioned as an arsenal of racist dog whistles (similarity 0.80)
• Racial dog whistles replaced explicit slurs after the civil rights movement (similarity 0.79)
• Dog-whistle appeals mobilize racially resentful white liberals, not conservatives (similarity 0.78)
• Exposing subtle racism as violating egalitarian norms can trigger repudiation (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Color-blind rhetoric functioned as an arsenal of racist dog whistles #expands (0.85) — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Begin Again, 488
• Dog-whistle effects may cut opposite ways across ideology #qualifies (0.78) — Rachel Wetts and Robb Willer, Who Is Called by the Dog Whistle?…, 39
• Exposing subtle racism as violating egalitarian norms can trigger repudiation #qualifies (0.75) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 2190
• External social norms may be the strongest cues suppressing prejudiced expression #qualifies (0.72) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 2120
• Shared knowledge of prejudice grants social permission to express bias #complicates (0.72) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 331
• Dog-whistle appeals mobilize racially resentful white liberals, not conservatives #qualifies (0.70) — Rachel Wetts and Robb Willer, Who Is Called by the Dog Whistle?…, 11