Explicit and implicit racial cues boost racial resentment equally in whites

Evidence

However, other work has called into question whether explicit racial messages are less effective than implicit messages. In two large, nationally representative experiments, Huber and Lapinski (2006, 2008) found that both implicit and explicit racial cues increase the role of racial resentment in whites’ evaluations of welfare relative to race-neutral or counter-stereotypical messages, but implicit cues have no greater effect than explicit cues. They suggested racial priming theory is flawed because most Americans are not politically sophisticated enough to distinguish between implicit and explicit messages, while those whose political thinking is sufficiently sophisticated to make this distinction already bring racial considerations to bear in evaluating political issues. Therefore, neither racial appeal strengthens the (already strong) impact of racial resentment among the subpopulation that distinguishes between implicit and explicit cues, whereas both appeals are equally effective among the other subpopulation. — Rachel Wetts and Robb Willer, Who Is Called by the Dog Whistle?…, 24

Categorization

• XREF: Directly relevant to the reader’s core question about whether threat-hardened beliefs backfire upon rational/moral correction — this challenges Mendelberg’s implicit-only-efficacy theory and parallels the reader’s interest in differential effects across ideological sophistication. — connects to: Implicit racial appeals produce an opposite-of-predicted backfire effect among low-resentment moderates. — Rachel Wetts and Robb Willer, Who Is Called by the Dog Whistle?…, 79; Implicit racial appeals mobilize resentment among liberals as well as conservatives — Rachel Wetts and Robb Willer, Who Is Called by the Dog Whistle?…, 56; Automatic race stereotypes operate regardless of self-reported prejudice (+2 more)
• QUESTION: Does the priming objection noted in paragraph 25 mean these results would not replicate if racial views were measured post-treatment — and does that affect the asymmetry question across ideology?

Related

• Implicit racial appeals produce an opposite-of-predicted backfire effect among low-resentment moderates. (similarity 0.91)
• Implicit racial appeals mobilize resentment among liberals as well as conservatives (similarity 0.88)
• Subtly racialized appeals mobilize high-resentment liberals but leave moderates and conservatives unmoved. (similarity 0.88)
• Explicit racial appeals fail to shift welfare support whereas implicit racial cues succeed. (similarity 0.86)
• Dog-whistle appeals mobilize racially resentful white liberals, not conservatives (similarity 0.85)
• 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 0.84)
• Racial appeals do not generally amplify the effect of racial attitudes on welfare support (similarity 0.84)
• Racially encoded messages backfire among moderates high in racial resentment. (similarity 0.83)
• Racial appeals intensify racial-attitude influence on gun attitudes among liberals, not conservatives. (similarity 0.83)
• Implicit racial appeals boosted liberal support for gun control (similarity 0.83)
• Prior exposure to racialized elite cues hardens opposite positions against novel racial appeals. (similarity 0.83)
• Dog-whistle effects may cut opposite ways across ideology (similarity 0.82)
• Liberal whites’ racial resentment is harnessed by racial appeals across ideologically opposed policy domains. (similarity 0.82)
• Implicit racial appeals drive welfare opposition through reduced deservingness perceptions (similarity 0.82)
• Null racial-priming results may reflect weak messages rather than real effects. (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Implicit racial appeals produce an opposite-of-predicted backfire effect among low-resentment moderates. #contradicts (0.85) — Rachel Wetts and Robb Willer, Who Is Called by the Dog Whistle?…, 79
• Implicit racial appeals mobilize resentment among liberals as well as conservatives #expands (0.85) — Rachel Wetts and Robb Willer, Who Is Called by the Dog Whistle?…, 56
• Automatic race stereotypes operate regardless of self-reported prejudice #corroborates (0.80)
• Implicit social cognition research reveals prejudice operating below conscious awareness #corroborates (0.75)