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The “Faculty Brown Bag" was created to provide a forum for core and associate AAS faculty to present their current work and workshop new ideas with colleagues over lunch.
Linked fate, the perception that due to historical and contemporary experiences of group disadvantage and discrimination, one’s life chances are inextricably linked to the status and fortunes of African Americans as a whole, has long been used to explain African Americans’ distinct political unity and policy views. Yet, despite its wide usage, previous research has shown that linked fate is weakly associated with Black political behavior. Building on previous research, we argue that linked fate is more appropriate for measuring social connectedness than it is for explaining Black political behavior. In this paper, we develop and assess a new measure of Black identity – the Politicized Racial Identity (PRI). Across three studies, we demonstrate that PRI more reliably and powerfully explains a wide range of Black political views compared to linked fate. We also find that relative to linked fate, PRI is better suited to explain conservative policy opinions among African Americans. Study 1 relies on data from the American National Election Study (2004-2020) of approximately 2,800 African American respondents to examine the relationship between PRI and policy attitudes. Study 2 and Study 3 use original survey data from samples of approximately 500 Black respondents each, where we examine behavioral outcomes as well as additional attitudinal outcomes. The results from Study 2 and Study 3 further indicate that relative to linked fate, PRI has a stronger association with costly political behavior, such as donations to Black organizations and racial causes.
LaFleur Stephens-Dougan earned her Ph.D. in Public Policy and Political Science from the University of Michigan. Her research interests include racial attitudes, Black politics, and public opinion. Her book Race to the Bottom: How Racial Appeals Work in American Politics (University of Chicago Press 2020) was awarded the 2021 Ralph J. Bunche Award from the American Political Science Association and the 2021 David O. Sears Best Book Award from the International Society of Political Psychology. Professor Stephens-Dougan is a recipient of grants from the National Science Foundation’s Time-Sharing in Experimental Social Sciences, the Russell Sage Foundation, and the Social Science Research Council. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in the Journal of Politics, the American Political Science Review, Electoral Studies, the Annual Review of Political Science, and the Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics.
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