May 12, 2021 | Noon to 1:00 PM EDT
Sergio Garcia-Rios (Cornell University)
Add to calendar
Join via Zoom: https://umich.zoom.us/j/92756696213
Explicit political attacks on immigrants and ethnic minorities have become pervasive in politics around the globe – what is the effect on the identities of those targeted? Group identities are not only important for personal wellbeing, but also for mobilization and collective action. Social identity theory suggests that negative group attributions will lead to polarization: distancing and de-identification from those with low-identifiers, and strengthen identities among high-identifiers. However, there is little evidence of the effects of campaign rhetoric, which might be more easily ignored or dismissed than government policies, or on racial and ethnic identities, where the barriers to exit might be very high. This study uses a pre-registered survey experiment with samples of Latinx-Americans and South Asian-Canadians employing a “social media style” campaign video for a fictional candidate that combines photos, text and voice-over, and focused on the economy (control), or anti-immigration/ethnicity (treatment). I find treatment effects on all of these identities. The treatment effects run in the opposite direction: Latinx respondents show decreases, while South Asian respondents increase their identities.