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Full-Text Articles in Psychology

We The People. Who? The Face Of Future American Politics Is Shaped By Perceived Foreignness Of Candidates Of Color, Patrizia Chirco, Tonya M. Buchanan Feb 2023

We The People. Who? The Face Of Future American Politics Is Shaped By Perceived Foreignness Of Candidates Of Color, Patrizia Chirco, Tonya M. Buchanan

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

Pursuing a more equitable political representation of a country's demographics is essential both as a matter of principle and pragmatism (i.e., realpolitik). As such, the goal of the present study was to replicate and expand on research on the impact of voter race/ethnicity and ideology on voting behaviors and interpersonal judgments of political candidates of color from different racial and ethnic groups. After participants (N = 282) saw the same political candidate of color (randomly assigned to identify as Mexican American vs. African American), we assessed interpersonal judgments and behaviors (e.g., expertise, voting intentions), perceived Americanness, and memory for skin …


Dark Faces In White Spaces: The Effects Of Skin Tone, Race, Ethnicity, And Intergroup Preferences On Interpersonal Judgments And Voting Behavior, Patrizia Chirco, Tonya M. Buchanan Apr 2022

Dark Faces In White Spaces: The Effects Of Skin Tone, Race, Ethnicity, And Intergroup Preferences On Interpersonal Judgments And Voting Behavior, Patrizia Chirco, Tonya M. Buchanan

Student Published Works

Across three experimental studies, we explored how a political candidate's intersections of skin tone, race, and ethnicity affect voting preferences and interpersonal judgments (e.g., warmth, trustworthiness, expertise). Study 1 assessed whether White participants would favor a light-skinned (vs. dark-skinned) African American candidate. Study 2 investigated participant (White vs. non-White) voting preferences based on the interaction between candidate race/ethnicity and relative skin tone (lighter vs. darker). In Study 3, we examined the influence of candidate race/ethnicity on voters’ preferences as well as the accuracy and impact of memory for candidate skin tone. Supporting our hypotheses, White participants generally held more negative …