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

综述：随着美国人口变得更加多元化，竞选政治职位的候选人也变得更加多样化。这种日益多样化的候选人包括多种族候选人，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，这项工作的很大一部分还假设少数族裔候选人“看起来”像他们认同的种族群体。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。我们对美国人会如何评价多种族候选人和民选官员知之甚少。这项提案提出的问题是，当候选人的身体特征与普遍接受的种族外表概念不一致时，选民如何评价当选官员是有代价的，还是有好处的。作者开展了一系列调查实验来研究这一问题。该项目借鉴了对美国种族政治的研究，对少数族裔候选人和官员的评估，以及社会心理学。研究人员认为，暴露在种族一致性或不一致性以及选民反应的影响取决于多种族候选人在种族认同等级中所处的位置。评估还受到受访者的种族以及受访者自身对不确定性的容忍度的影响。研究人员认为，暴露在种族不一致中会引发人们对多种族官员的身份、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，S/他对这位多种族官员的负面评价就越多。这项研究的智力价值来自于拟议的实验，该实验允许调查人员估计处理方法--引入候选人的身体特征--对候选人评估的因果影响。用种族表象来研究多种族官员测试了一种相对未被探索的现象，它可能解释了选民如何更普遍地评价代表。这项研究的更广泛影响包括更好地理解，随着美国变得更加多样化，种族如何成为少数群体政治代表性的障碍。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种族多元化的受众，以赢得选举。这项研究将有助于辨别多种族候选人在试图吸引自己所在群体时，可能会在多大程度上受到自己外表的制约。技术总结：这项研究利用了四个调查实验，这些实验以不同性别、表型和种族背景的现实世界政客的照片为特色。这些实验操纵候选人声明的种族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与。受访者将被邀请参加一项关于选民如何评价政客的调查。他们将被随机分配到阅读一篇关于一名公职人员的文章。这篇文章将以这位政治家的照片为特色，并从这位政治家的网站或其他新闻来源获取信息。对这位官员的种族背景的描述将被操纵，包括以下脚本：作为一个[种族团体]，我试图利用公共服务让美国成为一个更好的地方。然后，受访者会回答有关他们对官员的不确定感的问题吗？种族认同。这包括官员了解官员所认同的种族群体的政治需要的能力。它还评估该官员在多大程度上是该种族群体的典型成员。此外，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、对官员的热情感觉、对官员的特质评价，以及官员可能在任职期间履行某些职责。研究人员将对这些数据进行一系列统计测试，以确定实验性操纵是否对受访者对这些公职人员的评价产生了影响。

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.