Effects of pro-white identity cues in American political candidate communication

Abstract

American politicians have always harnessed the group nature of politics to build political power. Yet it is unclear whether explicit appeals to dominant group identities (e.g., white identity) can help political leaders win support from dominant group members (e.g., white Americans). Four experimental studies (N = 2,279; two pre-registered) used the identity ownership perspective (Kreiss et al., 2020) to examine how a fictional candidates’ support or opposition toward renting city space to dominant group members (e.g., white Music Association) affected white Americans’ evaluations of that candidate. Support for white groups was perceived as prototypical of Republicans, but expressing such support decreased candidates’ favorability. However, findings suggested: (a) decreases were smaller for white Republican (vs. Democrat) participants (Study 2) and (b) candidates faced similar negative evaluations if they communicated opposition to policies favoring white people (Studies 3–4). Results offered some support for candidate prototypicality as a mechanism for these effects.