Political ideology moderates White Americans’ reactions to racial demographic change

Abstract

An emerging body of research finds that exposure to the shifting racial demographics of a nation can engender concerns about racial group status among members of the dominant racial group. The present work revisits this finding, probing a broader set of group status concerns than has been examined in most past research. Three experiments exposed four samples of White Americans to racial demographic information or race-neutral control information, then assessed their perception that the relative status of racial groups in the nation would change and the extent to which they were alarmed by such a status shift—that is, status threat. Consistent with past work, what we now term perceived status change increased in response to salient racial demographics information, relative to race-neutral control information, irrespective of participants’ political ideology. Departing from past work, however, the perceived threat associated with changing racial demographics was moderated by political ideology. Specifically, politically conservative White participants demonstrated high levels of group status threat in the neutral control condition that either increased (Study 1a, Study 2) or stayed equally high (Study 1b, Study 3) after exposure to information about a racial shift. In contrast, in all studies, politically liberal White participants demonstrated a modest level of group status threat in the control condition that was attenuated upon exposure to a racial shift. Taken together, these results suggest a polarization of responses to the increasing racial diversity of the nation, one that was not observed even just a few years ago.

Perceived status threat and health among White Americans: A scoping review

“…They found that Whites' perceptions of in-group population decline was directly related to fear of loss of dominant social status ( Bai & Federico, 2019 ). Additionally, Brown et al (2021) investigated White Americans' status concerns and found that perceived threat associated with changing racial demographics in the U.S. is moderated by political ideology. White conservatives considered the impending “majority-minority” demographic shift as a threat to Whites' dominant status, while White liberals were not threatened by a potential loss of status ( Brown et al, 2021 ).…”

“…Additionally, Brown et al (2021) investigated White Americans' status concerns and found that perceived threat associated with changing racial demographics in the U.S. is moderated by political ideology. White conservatives considered the impending “majority-minority” demographic shift as a threat to Whites' dominant status, while White liberals were not threatened by a potential loss of status ( Brown et al, 2021 ). Relatedly, experiments by Stewart and Willer (2022) portrayed that fears about White population decline significantly predicted Whites' support for Trump early in the 2016 election cycle, but the effect weakened over time, suggesting that other factors, such as ethnic identification, may contribute more significantly to White Americans' endorsement of conservative candidates than the fear of being outnumbered by racial minorities.…”

Between Demographic Optimism and Pessimism?

“…Other scholars, such as Ashley Jardina (2019), have found that Whites with lower levels of racial identification report less anger after being provided information that Whites would be a minority by 2042 than their more strongly White-identifying contemporaries (see also Major et al, 2018). As with other views, and race and immigration attitudes in particular, partisan affiliation and political ideology seem to have a strong influence on perceptions and responses to demographic change (Abascal 2020;Brown et al, 2021). 3 Using a series of experimental studies, Dowell Myers and Morris Levy (2018; demonstrate that narrative framing can also shape emotional responses to projected population trends.…”

Privilege lost: How dominant groups react to shifts in cultural primacy and power

“…Most of these endeavors generally found that threats play a significant role in predicting a range of outcomes relevant to solidifying the status quo. Building on past work, the papers in the Special Issue have shed new light on a range of threat-relevant mediators and have made more fine-grained distinctions between constructs (e.g., reference to status change threats by Brown, Rucker and Richeson 2022).…”

“…In the Special Issue, Brown, Rucker and Richeson (2022) build on earlier work (e.g., Craig & Richeson, 2014), but introduce an important distinction between the perception of change in intergroup position and perceptions of threat associated with that change. Previous research on a related topic found value in differentiating between the perceived population size of an outgroup and the sense of threat associated with that size (see Earle & Hodson, 2019).…”