Sadly, prejudice is a given in politics, where voters so often appear to back candidates who express prejudice against women or minorities. New research from the University of Minnesota suggests that despite this tendency, voters are far more likely to back a candidate that aligns with them ideology, even if the sex or race of the candidate doesn’t meet their approval.
“There is some evidence that has already cast doubt on the conventional view that racial and gender prejudice hurts politicians who are Black and female,” the researchers explain. “This research shows that how citizens’ prejudice plays a role in their political preferences is more nuanced than many people think. Overall, the perceived ideology of the candidate determines whether the candidate will be popular among racists and sexists. Whether the candidate is Black or white, a man or a woman, does not seem to matter.”
The researcher assessed data from six surveys, which in total comprised nearly 45,000 people. The surveys each tried to measure their racism and sexism levels, with questions such as how unintelligent do they think Black people are or whether women’s place should be in the home. Participants were also asked to rate their support for various politicians, including both real and hypothetical candidates. This was then correlated with national survey data from electoral cycles between 1972 to 2016, which gave an insight into both congressional and presidential support, together with measures of both racism and sexism.
Prejudicial voting
The results revealed that the participants who scored highly for prejudice were most likely to support conservative candidates, regardless of whether they were real or hypothetical. Interestingly, however, the race and gender of the candidate didn’t seem to matter. People with prejudicial views were still just as likely to support a conservative candidate that was Black or a woman as they would a conservative candidate that was white or a man.
“When it comes to supporting a political candidate, the results suggest that ideology is the primary factor that determines whether citizens’ prejudice benefits or undermines their support for the politicians, not the politicians’ demographic background,” the researcher explains.
The results suggest we should move on from our belief that the primary political consequences of racism and sexism are that they render voters more hostile to candidates of color or who are women.
“Rather, the results pretty consistently indicate that racist and sexist attitudes are associated with support for candidates who are less sympathetic to egalitarian goals or who promise to preserve a status quo that includes racial and gender inequality,” the researcher says.
While race and gender were largely irrelevant, however, religion certainly didn’t appear to be. While people with prejudicial views against Muslims were also more likely to support the conservative candidate, this support withered away if that candidate was themselves a Muslim. The researcher suggests that this might be because religious identity is an ideology in itself in a way that gender and race are not.
