Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Politics of Place: How Southern Identity Shapes American Political Behavior

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 文摘:本研究旨在了解美国人的身份之间的关系与美国南部(如身份南部)和他们的信仰有关政治。利用居住在南方来衡量南方认同，现有的政治科学研究在南方认同是否与美国白人的一套独特的政治信仰有关的问题上得出了混杂的证据，面临着理论和经验上的局限性。这些限制包括使用南方居住地来衡量南方身份，以及研究南方身份与黑人、白人和拉丁裔美国人的政治信仰之间的关系。基于对南方各州杂志和报纸的内容分析、当代社交媒体分析以及对南方居民的定性访谈，PI构建了一个多维度的南方身份跨种族衡量标准，并说明了南方身份如何影响美国人在不同种族中采用相似的政治信仰。这项研究表明，次国家身份在塑造精英行为和大众舆论方面是多么强大。本研究解决了以下问题：(1)南方身份是跨种族美国人政治上强有力的社会身份吗？(2)为什么南方身份对美国公众舆论有保守主义的影响？本研究建立在现有的政治心理学和种族和民族政治文献的基础上，但采用了一种新颖的方法，重点关注次民族身份在塑造不同种族群体的政治态度和政策偏好方面的作用。该项目采用混合方法，包括调查数据、南方报纸和杂志文章的历史分析以及社交媒体数据的文本分析。PI构建了一种新的多维动态的南方身份测量方法，并使用该方法来测试一系列与民意相关的假设。从经验上看，PI证明了次民族身份也会助长种族内部的群体差异。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Abstract:This research seeks to understand the relationship between Americans' identification with the American South (e.g., Southern identity) and their beliefs about politics. Using residency in the South to measure Southern identification, existing political science studies that produce mixed evidence on whether Southern identity is associated with a distinct set of political beliefs for White Americans face both theoretical and empirical limitations. These limitations include using Southern residence to measure Southern identity and understudying the relationship between Southern identity and the political beliefs of Black, White, and Latino Americans. Based on content analyses of magazines and newspapers in Southern states, contemporary social media analyses, and qualitative interviews with Southern residents, the PI constructs a multi-dimensional cross-racial measure of Southern identity and illustrates how Southern identity influences Americans to adopt similar political beliefs across race. This research demonstrates how powerful sub-national identities can be in shaping elite behavior and mass opinion. This research addresses the following questions: (1) is Southern identity a politically potent social identity for Americans across racial groups and (2) why does Southern identity have a conservatizing impact on American public opinion? This research builds on existing political psychology and race and ethnic politics literature but takes a novel approach that focuses on the role of sub-national identities in shaping political attitudes and policy preferences across racial groups. The project relies on a mixed-methods approach consisting of survey data, historical analysis of South-located newspaper and magazine articles, and textual analysis of social media data. The PI constructs a new multidimensional and dynamic measurement of Southern identity and uses the measure to test a set of public opinion-related hypotheses. Empirically, the PI demonstrates how sub-national identities can also foster intra-racial group differences.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.