Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-nr4z6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-01T21:58:37.323Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Effects of Anti-Black Political Messages on Self-Esteem

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2015

Monique L. Lyle
Monique L. Lyle*
Affiliation:
Survey Research Laboratory, Institute for Public Service and Policy Research, University of South Carolina, (803) 777-9788, SC, USA; e-mail: lyleml@mailbox.sc.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study examines how anti-Black political rhetoric affects race-specific collective self-esteem (R-CSE) and internal political efficacy among African–Americans and Whites. Results from an experiment in which subjects received an anti-Black stereotype-accentuating message attributed to either a political figure or an “ordinary American,” or no message at all, demonstrate that the political message undermined how African–Americans regard their own racial group, activated beliefs about how others regard African–Americans as a predictor of how African–Americans regard their own racial group, and undermined internal political efficacy. For Whites, the results demonstrate that the political message moderated the relationship between how they regard their own racial group and beliefs about how others regard their racial group, though the political message did not significantly increase or decrease racial group-regard or political efficacy overall. These results provide empirical confirmation of the role that government and politics can play in self-esteem.

Keywords

Self-esteemrace-specific collective self-esteeminternal political efficacyanti-Black political rhetoric
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Experimental Political Science , Volume 2 , Issue 1 , Spring 2015 , pp. 73 - 80
Copyright
Copyright © The Experimental Research Section of the American Political Science Association 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Crocker, J., Luhtanen, R., Blaine, B., and Broadnax, S. 1994. “Collective Self-Esteem and Psychological well-being Among White, Black, and Asian College Students.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 20 (5): 503–13.Google Scholar
Crocker, J., and Quinn, D. M. 2003. “Social Stigma and the Self: Meanings, Situations, and Self-Esteem.” In The Social Psychology of Stigma, eds. Heatherton, T. F., Kleck, R. E., Hebl, M. R., and Hull, J. G. (pp.153–83). New York, NY: The Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Finkel, S. E. 1987. “The Effects of Participation on Political Efficacy and Political Support: Evidence from a West German Panel.” Journal of Politics 49 (2): 441–64.Google Scholar
Gaines, B. J., Kuklinski, J. H., and Quirk, P. J. 2007. “The Logic of the Survey Experiment Reexamined.” Political Analysis 15 (1): 1–20.Google Scholar
Harris, F. C. 1994. “Something within: Religion as a Mobilizer of African-American Political Activism.” Journal of Politics 56 (1): 42–68.Google Scholar
Hutchings, V. L., and Jardina, A. E. 2009. “Experiments on Racial Priming in Political Campaigns.” Annual Review of Political Science 12: 397–402.Google Scholar
Iyengar, S., and Kinder, D. R. 2010. News that Matters: Television and American Opinion. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Kuklinski, J. H., and Hurley, N. L. 1994. “On Hearing and Interpreting Political Messages: A Cautionary Tale of Citizen Cue-Taking.” The Journal of Politics 56 (03): 729–51.Google Scholar
Lane, R. E. 1982. “Government and Self-Esteem.” Political Theory 10 (1): 5–31.Google Scholar
Leary, M. R. 2012. “Sociometer Theory.” In Handbook of Theories of Social Psychology, eds. Van Lange, P. A. M., Kruglanski, A. W., and Higgins, E. T. (Vol. 2, pp. 141–59). Los Angeles, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Luhtanen, R., and Crocker, J. 1992. “A Collective Self-Esteem Scale: Self-Evaluation of One's Social Identity.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 18 (3): 302–18.Google Scholar
Mendelberg, T. 2001. The Race Card: Campaign Strategy, Implicit Messages, and the Norm of Equality. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Morrell, M. E. 2003. “Survey and Experimental Evidence for a Reliable and Valid Measure of Internal Political Efficacy.” The Public Opinion Quarterly 67 (4): 589–602.Google Scholar
Nelson, T. E., Oxley, Z. M., and Clawson, R. A. 1997. “Toward a Psychology of Framing Effects.” Political Behavior 19 (3): 221–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Niemi, R. G., Craig, S. C., and Mattei, F. 1991. “Measuring Internal Political Efficacy in the 1988 National Election Study.” American Political Science Review 85 (4): 1407–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quinn, D. M., and Crocker, J. 1999. “When Ideology Hurts: Effects of Belief in the Protestant Ethic and Feeling Overweight on the Psychological Well-being of Women.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 77 (2): 402.Google Scholar
Shingles, R. D. 1981. “Black Consciousness and Political Participation: The Missing Link.” The American Political Science Review 75 (1): 76–91.Google Scholar
Stout, C., and Tate, K. 2013. “The 2008 Presidential Election, Political Efficacy, and Group Empowerment.” Politics, Groups, and Identities 1 (2): 143–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tajfel, H., and Turner, J. C. 1986. “The Social Identity Theory of Intergroup Behavior.” In Psychology of Intergroup Relations, eds. Austin, W. G., and Worchel, S. (2 ed., pp. 7–24). Chicago, IL: Nelson-Hall Publishers.Google Scholar
Valentino, N. A., Hutchings, V. L., and White, I. K. 2002. “Cues that Matter: How Political Ads Prime Racial Attitudes during Campaigns.” American Political Science Review 96 (1): 75–90.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Lyle supplementary material

Appendix

Download Lyle supplementary material(File)
File 45.5 KB