Implicit racial appeals mobilize resentment among liberals as well as conservatives

Evidence

Finally, we explored whether the racial appeals increased the influence of baseline racial attitudes among either more liberal or more conservative participants. … Looking first at the effect of the implicit appeal, results suggest that the implicit racial appeal increased the effect of racial resentment on welfare support among liberals specifically. We find a negative three-way interaction between liberalism, racial resentment, and the implicit racial appeal condition (p = .04) such that liberals high in racial resentment were less supportive of welfare after reading the implicit racial appeal compared to a message with no racial appeal. — Rachel Wetts and Robb Willer, Who Is Called by the Dog Whistle?…, 56

Categorization

• XREF: Directly extends the reader’s core question about whether racially-encoded messages produce asymmetric effects across ideology — here implying backlash is not confined to out-group defenders; even high-resentment liberals reduce welfare support in response. — connects to: Dog-whistle appeals mobilize racially resentful white liberals, not conservatives — Rachel Wetts and Robb Willer, Who Is Called by the Dog Whistle?…, 11; Explicit and implicit racial cues boost racial resentment equally in whites — Rachel Wetts and Robb Willer, Who Is Called by the Dog Whistle?…, 24; 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 (+5 more)
• QUESTION: What drove the liberal respondents high in racial resentment to respond to the implicit appeal? Anti-egalitarian liberals facing a dog whistle may feel licensed, or the framing activated a competing norm — worth chasing the mechanism.

Related

• Subtly racialized appeals mobilize high-resentment liberals but leave moderates and conservatives unmoved. (similarity 0.95)
• Explicit racial appeals fail to shift welfare support whereas implicit racial cues succeed. (similarity 0.91)
• Implicit racial appeals produce an opposite-of-predicted backfire effect among low-resentment moderates. (similarity 0.90)
• 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 0.90)
• Racial appeals intensify racial-attitude influence on gun attitudes among liberals, not conservatives. (similarity 0.88)
• Explicit and implicit racial cues boost racial resentment equally in whites (similarity 0.88)
• Racial appeals do not generally amplify the effect of racial attitudes on welfare support (similarity 0.87)
• Prior exposure to racialized elite cues hardens opposite positions against novel racial appeals. (similarity 0.86)
• Implicit racial appeals boosted liberal support for gun control (similarity 0.86)
• 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 0.85)
• Dog-whistle effects may cut opposite ways across ideology (similarity 0.85)
• Implicit racial appeals drive welfare opposition through reduced deservingness perceptions (similarity 0.84)
• Racially encoded messages backfire among moderates high in racial resentment. (similarity 0.84)
• Racially resentful white liberals number about ten million and may be decisive voters. (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• Liberal whites’ racial resentment is harnessed by racial appeals across ideologically opposed policy domains. #corroborates (0.90) — Rachel Wetts and Robb Willer, Who Is Called by the Dog Whistle?…, 172
• Subtly racialized appeals mobilize high-resentment liberals but leave moderates and conservatives unmoved. #contradicts (0.80) — Rachel Wetts and Robb Willer, Who Is Called by the Dog Whistle?…, 77
• Racial perceptions drive political passions independent of policy effectiveness #qualifies (0.75) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 2018