Implicit racial appeals boosted liberal support for gun control

Evidence

A follow-up experiment tested the effects of messages supporting a political position—support for gun control— that is currently negatively correlated with endorsement of negative stereotypes of minorities. Again, we found a threeway interaction between experimental condition, racial resentment, and political ideology suggesting that the implicit racial appeal increased support for gun control among liberals high in racial resentment. In this second study, we also found that this effect occurred for liberals high in explicit racial prejudice. In addition, we found that liberals high in racial resentment showed significantly greater support for gun control after reading the explicit racial appeal. — Rachel Wetts and Robb Willer, Who Is Called by the Dog Whistle?…, 169

Categorization

• XREF: Contentious that the same racial cue that increases welfare opposition ALSO increases gun-control support — the racial frame doesn’t attach a fixed valence to the policy, it energizes prejudice holders. Connects to the reader’s interest in what happens when threat cues are aimed at the group’s own ingroup stance. — connects to: Gun control is racialized such that racial resentment decreases support for it. — Rachel Wetts and Robb Willer, Who Is Called by the Dog Whistle?…, 98; Racial appeals intensify racial-attitude influence on gun attitudes among liberals, not conservatives. — Rachel Wetts and Robb Willer, Who Is Called by the Dog Whistle?…, 166; Liberal whites’ racial resentment is harnessed by racial appeals across ideologically opposed policy domains. — Rachel Wetts and Robb Willer, Who Is Called by the Dog Whistle?…, 172 (+1 more)

Related

• Racial appeals intensify racial-attitude influence on gun attitudes among liberals, not conservatives. (similarity 0.95)
• Gun control is racialized such that racial resentment decreases support for it. (similarity 0.92)
• Liberal whites’ racial resentment is harnessed by racial appeals across ideologically opposed policy domains. (similarity 0.90)
• Dog-whistle appeals mobilize racially resentful white liberals, not conservatives (similarity 0.86)
• Implicit racial appeals mobilize resentment among liberals as well as conservatives (similarity 0.86)
• Racially encoded messages backfire among moderates high in racial resentment. (similarity 0.85)
• Subtly racialized appeals mobilize high-resentment liberals but leave moderates and conservatives unmoved. (similarity 0.84)
• Explicit and implicit racial cues boost racial resentment equally in whites (similarity 0.83)
• Prior exposure to racialized elite cues hardens opposite positions against novel racial appeals. (similarity 0.83)
• Implicit racial appeals produce an opposite-of-predicted backfire effect among low-resentment moderates. (similarity 0.82)
• Racial appeals do not generally amplify the effect of racial attitudes on welfare support (similarity 0.82)
• Racial perceptions drive political passions independent of policy effectiveness (similarity 0.82)
• Explicit racial appeals fail to shift welfare support whereas implicit racial cues succeed. (similarity 0.80)
• Dog-whistle effects may cut opposite ways across ideology (similarity 0.79)
• 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 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Liberal whites’ racial resentment is harnessed by racial appeals across ideologically opposed policy domains. #expands (0.85) — Rachel Wetts and Robb Willer, Who Is Called by the Dog Whistle?…, 172
• Racial perceptions drive political passions independent of policy effectiveness #complicates (0.72) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 2018