The Effects of Racial Messages in Televised Campaign Advertising: A Multi-Contextual Experimental Study

The extant literature in the areas of race, campaign communication and voting behavior has left unaddressed a number of issues that we explore in this paper. Previous studies have focused almost solely on the perceptions of black candidates by white voters; we are interested in understanding how racial cues in political advertising affect voter voters’ (both black and white) evaluations of candidates of either race. This paper presents the results of a 2 (race of candidates: black vs. white, black vs. black) X 3 (racial messages: implicit racial message vs. no racial message vs. explicit racial message) independent groups stimulus-posttest experimental design pilot study wherein participants are exposed to campaign advertisements that were carefully crafted and produced specifically for this project. We test the effects of racial messages on vote choice and candidate evaluation in both biracial (African American v. white) and all-black contests, controlling for a number of theoreticallygrounded independent variables. Results highlight the way information processing of ads with racial content affects the evaluation of candidates in multiple election contexts, as well as the degree to which such messages are effective in priming preexisting racial attitudes. In short, what we know about how racial messages affect white voters differs from the reality of the way racial messages work in the context of black voters where both candidates in the election are also black. 1 This study was made possible with funding from New York University’s Steinhardt School, Dean’s Discretionary Research Fund. Caliendo, McIlwain & Caliendo, 2006 2 The Effects of Racial Messages in Televised Campaign Advertising: A Multi-Contextual Experimental Study Previous research on the intersections of race, political campaign communication and voting behavior has focused largely on two distinct, yet related, sets of questions. First, what perceptions do white voters have about minorities in general and minority candidates specifically, and how might those attitudes influence vote choices in election contests where either a minority candidate or a white candidate championing minority interests is involved (Sigelman et al., 1995; Terkildsen, 1993; Williams, 1990)? Second, what forms of racial messages are used in political campaigns to prime white racial attitudes (primarily related to specific public policy issues), and are these racial attitudes relied upon when making voting decisions (Johnston, 1999; Mendelberg, 2001; Valentino, Hutchings & White, 2002; Valentino, Traugott & Hutchings 2002)? Although conclusions regarding the direct link between whites’ existing prejudicial attitudes and vote choice are mixed, research thus far supports the notion that racial cues are effective in priming such attitudes, and in doing so affecting whites’ voting decisions. While we rely on conclusions from these two areas in our present study, they leave unaddressed the following question, which we seek to answer: How do racial cues in political advertising impact voters’ (both black and white) evaluation of both black and white candidates? This question is increasingly pertinent given the dramatic increase of the minority population in the U.S. (especially Latino – see Hero and Tolbert, 1995); the increase in minorities elected to local and state offices (Bositis, 2002a), which suggests that federal election contests in certain areas will increasingly involve minority candidates competing with whites; and continued reliance on redistricting that has increased the number of majority-minority congressional districts throughout the U.S. A second relatively recent shift involves the growing ideological diversity within African American communities. Such diversity is expressed in a number of factors, including: the nonracial types of policy issues that blacks say concern them; the increasing numbers of blacks self-identifying as either independents or Republicans (whose numbers increased 150% between 2000 and 2002); and the changing view of what black leadership means (Bositis, 2002b). Though as a whole the vast majority of black voters are still registered Democrats and/or vote for Democratic Party candidates, this growing diversity is likely to change the degree of competitiveness among candidates vying for seats in majority-black districts, which, up to this point, has generally not been the case (Gerber, 1996). In this scenario, then, blacks will be targeted with a wider range of candidate messages aimed at a greater diversity of attitudes and policy issues. Black voters would increasingly have to make difficult choices about the candidate for whom they vote and, we believe, such messages will often take the form of appeals to racial (African American) authenticity. This reality is the foundation for a second question addressed in our study: How do appeals to racial authenticity in political advertising by black candidates affect black and white constituents of majority-black districts in terms of their evaluation of and likelihood to vote for a particular black candidate? The creation and/or maintenance of majority-minority districts during the redistricting process have historically been the primary avenues for minority representation in the United States House of Representatives. While some disagree as to the normative benefit of this reality to the broader issues of representation (see Lublin, 1995, 1999), our aim in this project is simply to understand the effects of differing elements of communication under several conditions involving minority and white candidates and respondents. Assumptions about why black candidates fare better in majority-minority districts (particularly majority-black districts) are rooted in models of group consciousness and group identity (see Bobo and Gilliam, 1990). These sociological models, along with models of media effects and those drawn from political psychology, inform our purposes and objectives for this project.