Majority-minority shift salience is manipulated by random survey-form assignment among independents

Evidence

Study 1 utilized a nationally representative survey wherein self-identified politically independent White respondents were randomly assigned to learn about a majority-minority racial shift or not to learn about the shift; they were then asked about their politicalparty leanings and ideology. If perceived majorityminority racial shifts evoke group-status threat in White respondents, as suggested by previous research (Outten et al., 2012), then making such a shift salient should lead politically unaffiliated respondents to lean more toward the Republican Party and express more conservative ideology. … Data were obtained from the News Interest Index (N = 1,202; Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, 2001). Our focal analyses were limited to White respondents who identified themselves as unaffiliated with either of the two major U.S. political parties (n = 369; 183 men, 186 women; mean age = 45.12 years, SD = 17.35). Respondents were randomly assigned to one of two survey forms that asked slightly different questions, providing an experimental manipulation of racial-shift salience. One survey form asked participants if they had heard that California had become a majority-minority state (racialshift condition); the other asked participants if they had heard that Hispanics had become roughly equal in number to Blacks nationally (control condition). Finally, respondents were asked which party they leaned more toward (1 = Republican, 0 = Democrat), indicated their general political ideology (1 = very liberal, 5 = very conservative), and reported their demographic information (e.g., gender, age). — Maureen A. Craig and Jennifer A. Richeson, On the Precipice of a…, 14

Categorization

• QUESTION: Does the random assignment compare against a ‘national majority-minority’ truth condition rather than California specifically? The stimulus mentions California becoming majority-minority specifically.
• XREF: connects to: Identity salience shifts with the scale of the surrounding group

Broader Connections

• Identity salience shifts with the scale of the surrounding group #expands (0.75)