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Are Citizens “Receiving The Treatment”? Assessing A Key Link In Contextual Theories Of Public Opinion And Political Behavior, Benjamin J. Newman, Yamil R. Valez, Todd K. Hartman, Alexa Bankert

Todd K. Hartman

The theorization and empirical exploration of contextual effects is a long standing feature of public opinion and political behavior research. At present, however, there is little to no evidence that citizens actually perceive the local contextual factors theorized to influence their attitudes and behaviors. In this article, we focus on two of the most prevalent contextual factors appearing in theories—racial/ethnic and economic context—to investigate whether citizens’ perceptions of their local ethnic and economic contexts map onto variation in the actual ethnic composition and economic health of these environments. Using national survey data combined with Census data, and focusing on the …