Doctoral Dissertation Research: When Descriptive Representatives' Faces Don't Match Their Races: Inconsistent Attributes and Evaluations of Multiracial Officials

随着美国人口越来越多样化，竞选政治职位的候选人也越来越多样化。这种日益增加的多元化包括多种族候选人，即那些认同两个或两个以上种族的候选人。虽然政治学研究已经确定了来自不同背景的选民如何评价少数族裔候选人，但大多数研究都集中在单一种族的少数族裔候选人身上。此外，这项工作的大部分还假设少数族裔候选人“看起来像”他们所认同的种族群体。然而，考虑到日益增长的多种族人口和种族模糊性，这些假设可能是不合适的。我们对美国人如何评价多种族候选人和民选官员知之甚少。该提案询问，当候选人的身体特征与普遍接受的种族外貌概念不符时，选民如何评估当选官员是否有成本或收益。作者开展了一系列调查实验来研究这个问题。该项目借鉴了对美国种族政治、对少数族裔候选人和官员的评估以及社会心理学的研究。研究人员认为，暴露于种族一致性或不一致性的影响以及选民的反应取决于多种族候选人在种族身份的层次结构中所处的位置。评估也受到受访者种族的影响，以及受访者自己对不确定性的容忍度。研究人员认为，暴露在种族不一致的情况下，会引发对多种族官员身份、种族结盟和问题立场的不确定感。因此，受访者对不确定性的容忍度越低，他/她对多种族官员的评价就越负面。这项研究的智力价值源于提议的实验，它允许研究者估计治疗的因果效应-候选人的身体特征的介绍-对候选人的评估。用种族外貌来研究多种族官员，测试了一个相对未被探索的现象，这个现象可能解释选民如何更普遍地评价代表。这项研究的更广泛影响包括，随着美国变得更加多样化，种族如何成为少数族裔政治代表的障碍。随着多种族候选人变得越来越普遍，他们将不得不吸引更多不同种族的观众来赢得选举。这项研究将有助于辨别多种族候选人在多大程度上受到他们的外表的限制，当他们试图吸引自己的群体时。技术总结：这项研究利用了四个调查实验，这些实验以现实世界中不同性别、表型和种族背景的政治家的照片为特征。实验操纵候选人陈述的种族，使之与他们的种族表型一致或不一致。调查样本将包括黑人、亚洲人和白人受访者，他们选择作为专业调查小组的一部分参加调查。受访者将被邀请参加一项关于选民如何评价政治家的调查。他们将被随机分配阅读一篇关于一名政府官员的文章。文章将刊登政治家的照片，以及从政治家的网站或其他新闻来源获取的信息。对该官员种族背景的描述将被篡改，包括以下文字：“作为一个（种族群体），我试图利用公共服务使美国成为一个更美好的地方。”然后，受访者将回答有关他们对官员的不确定感觉的问题。种族身份。这包括官员理解其所认同的种族群体的政治需求的能力。它还评估官员在多大程度上是该种族群体的典型成员。此外，该调查还将深入了解受访者对候选人的一系列评价，例如：对官员的情绪反应、政治效能感、政治疏离感、对官员的温暖感、对官员的特质评价以及官员可能履行某些职责的可能性。研究人员将对这些数据进行一系列的统计检验，以确定实验操作是否对受访者对这些公职人员的评价有任何影响。

General Summary:As the US population becomes more diverse, the diversity of candidates running for political office also becomes more diverse. This increasing diversification includes multiracial candidates, those who identify with two or more races. While political science research has identified how voters from different backgrounds evaluate minority candidates, most of that research focused on single-race minority candidates. Furthermore, much of this work also assumes that minority candidates "look like" the racial groups with which they identify. Given the growing multiracial population and racial ambiguity, however, these assumptions may be inappropriate. We know rather little about how Americans might evaluate multiracial candidates and elected officials. This proposal asks whether there are costs or benefits to how constituents evaluate elected officials when candidates' physical characteristics do not correspond with generally accepted conceptions of racial appearance. The author develops a series of survey experiments to investigate this question. The project draws on research in American racial politics, evaluations of minority candidates and officials, and social psychology. The researcher argues that the effect of exposure to racial consistency or inconsistency and constituents' responses depend on where a multiracial candidate is situated within in a hierarchy of racial identities. The evaluation is also influenced by the race of the respondent, along with the respondent's own tolerance for uncertainty. The researcher argues that exposure to racial inconsistency can trigger feelings of uncertainty about a multiracial official's identity, racial alignments, and issue stances. As such, the less tolerant of uncertainty a respondent is, the more negatively s/he will evaluate the multiracial official. The Intellectual Merit of this research stems from the proposed experiments, which allows the investigator to estimate the causal effect of the treatments -- the introduction of candidates' physical characteristics -- on the evaluation of candidates. Using racial appearance to study multiracial officials tests a relatively unexplored phenomenon that may explain how voters evaluate representatives more generally. The Broader Impacts of the study include a better understanding of how race is a barrier for the political representation of minority populations as the United States becomes more diverse. As multiracial candidates become more common, they will have to appeal to more racially diverse audiences to win elections. This research will help to discern the extent to which multiracial candidates might be constrained by their physical appearance when trying to appeal to their own groups. Technical Summary:This research utilizes four survey experiments that feature photos of real-world politicians who vary in gender, phenotype, and racial background. The experiments manipulate candidates' stated race as either consistent or inconsistent with their racial phenotype. The survey sample will consist of Black, Asian, and White respondents who opt-in to participate as part of a professional survey panel. Respondents will be invited to participate in a survey about how voters evaluate politicians. They will be randomly assigned to to read an article about a public official. The article will feature the politician's photo, and information taken from the politician's website or other news sources. Descriptions of the official's racial background will be manipulated by including the following script: "As a [racial group], I try to use public service to make America a better place for all." Respondents will then answer questions about their feelings of uncertainty regarding the officials? racial identity. This includes the officials' ability to understand the political needs of the racial group with which the official identifies. It also assesses the extent to which the official is a typical member of that racial group. Additionally, the survey will provide insight into a range of respondent evaluations of the candidate, such as: emotional responses to the official, feelings of political efficacy, feelings of political alienation, feelings of warmth toward the official, trait evaluations of the official, and likelihood the official probably performs certain duties in office. The researcher will subject these data to a series of statistical tests to determine whether the experimental manipulations had any effect on respondents' evaluations of these public officials.