Research

Scholars have long considered racial attitudes as an independent factor from economic experiences. In this paper, I question this premise. I explore the impact of economic anxiety on racial attitudes and develop a theory to explain how economic anxiety activates an individual’s racial resentment. Individuals whose living standards have stagnated over time and thus fear losing their socioeconomic status are likely to develop stronger in-group solidarity and out- group derogation. Individuals counteract economic threats by developing stronger in-group versus out-group identity. I test this theory in two different empirical settings. First, using local Chinese import exposure as an instrument to capture local economic disruption, I measure how an unexpected shock to the local economy engenders a higher level of racial resentment. Second, I run a survey experiment by priming respondents to think about financially stressful situations. Respondents primed with economic anxiety showed a higher level of racial resentment and ethnocentrism.

Have voters become polarized as income inequality has risen? To better understand polarization among the public and its relationship with inequality, I estimate voters’ ideology in two dimensions from 1980 to 2012 with a two-dimensional item response theory (IRT) model. The IRT model shows that the degree of polarization in economic policy preferences has not increased since 1980, but rather that polarization on racial and social issues has increased. The views on racial and social issues are largely driven by racial resentment. The degree of polariza- tion on social issues and on inequality levels are as highly correlated as the degree of correlation between polarization among elected officials and inequality. These results suggest that the link between inequality and polarization in Congress is voters’ polarization on non-economic issues, and not redistributive preferences.

What happens to voters’ hearts and minds when the reality of the American Dream is shifting? The United States has long been called the “Land of Opportunity” with its high levels of social mobility long considered to be the bedrock of American exceptionalism. However, recent research on intergenerational mobility has found large geographical differences within the United States. In this article, I develop a theory explaining why the level of intergenerational mobility in voters’ neighborhoods is correlated with voting behavior. I show that Census tract level-measured mobility is positively correlated with Republican vote share and the individual probability of voting Republican. This article also provides an explanation why poor voters support Republican candidates. Low-income voters vote Republican in the presence of the prospect that hard work will offer them an opportunity to succeed. Low-income voters’ likelihood of voting Republican is more strongly correlated with intergenerational mobility than middle- and high-income voters.