Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Effects of Race and Gender on Evaluations of Black Women

本研究调查了关于种族和性别的刻板印象如何影响对黑人女性政治候选人的支持。 绝大多数关于种族和性别的政治学研究分别考察这两种身份。 因此，很少有人知道当少数民族女性候选人竞选公职时，种族和性别陈规定型观念如何相互作用。该项目研究了黑人妇女候选人如何面对基于其种族和性别交叉的独特定型观念，这使得她们更难在政治竞选中赢得选票。 这项研究推进了我们对刻板印象影响黑人妇女的方式与其他代表性不足的群体（如白色妇女和黑人男子）不同的认识。这项研究也有可能帮助黑人妇女候选人了解加剧公众对黑人妇女的负面定型观念的竞选信息类型，以及哪些策略可以帮助减轻这些定型观念的影响。 因此，黑人妇女候选人可能能够更好地通过竞选活动抵制消极的陈规定型观念，并增加她们在当选公职中的代表性。 交叉性理论的学者强调种族和性别是相互建构的身份，因此它们的综合影响不一定等于其各部分的总和。 然而，大多数政治学研究仍然孤立地研究种族和性别。 该项目调查基于种族和性别交叉的陈规定型观念如何影响对黑人妇女候选人的支持。 社会心理学的研究表明，白人对黑人女性的刻板印象是坚韧、自信和专横。 然而，目前尚不清楚这些代理人的陈规定型观念如何影响对黑人妇女政治候选人的支持。此外，关于非裔美国人是否也以这种方式对自己种族群体的妇女进行刻板印象的实证研究很少。 该项目研究了交叉刻板印象理论，该理论认为黑人女性候选人受到基于种族和性别交叉的独特刻板印象的负面影响。 具体来说，我们认为，刻板印象与代理特征黑人妇女导致黑人妇女候选人在自己的种族和性别群体之外的选民中得到更负面的评价。 换句话说，我们预计，代理刻板印象不仅减少了黑人女性候选人在白色选民中的支持，而且减少了黑人男性的支持。 这一理论将通过一项全国性的调查实验进行检验，其中包括对非裔美国人的过度抽样。 这项研究表明了使用交叉框架来研究来自代表性不足群体的候选人的政治运动的重要性。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

This study investigates how stereotypes about race and gender affect support for black women political candidates. The vast majority of political science research on race and gender examines these two identities separately. Consequently, little is known about how race and gender stereotypes interact when a minority female candidate runs for office. This project examines how black women candidates face distinct stereotypes based on the intersection of their race and gender, which make it more difficult for them to win votes in political campaigns. This study advances our knowledge of the ways stereotypes affect black women differently than other underrepresented groups, such as white women and black men. This research also has the potential to help black women candidates understand the types of campaign messages that exacerbate negative stereotypes the public holds about black women and which strategies could help mitigate the influence of these stereotypes. As a result, black women candidates may be better able to counteract negative stereotypes through their campaigns and increase their representation in elected office. Scholars of intersectionality theory emphasize that race and gender are mutually constructed identities, such that their combined influence is not necessarily equal to sum of its parts. Yet, most research in political science still examines race and gender in isolation from one another. This project investigates how stereotypes based on the intersection of race and gender affect support for black women candidates. Research in social psychology demonstrates that whites stereotype black women as being tough, assertive, and domineering. It is unclear, however, how these agentic stereotypes impact support for black women political candidates. In addition, there is little empirical research on whether African Americans also stereotype women of their own racial group in this manner. This project examines a theory of intersectional stereotyping, which argues that black women candidates are negatively impacted by unique stereotypes based on the intersection of race and gender. Specifically, we argue that stereotypes associating black women with agentic traits lead black women candidates to be evaluated more negatively among voters outside of their own race and gender group. In other words, we expect that the agentic stereotype not only reduces support for black women candidates among white voters, but also reduces support among black men. This theory will be tested using a national survey experiment, with an over-sample of African Americans. This research demonstrates the importance of using an intersectional framework to study the political campaigns of candidates from underrepresented groups.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.