The Ben Carson Effect: Do voters prefer racialized or deracialized black conservatives?

Publication date: Available online 10 December 2018Source: Social Science ResearchAuthor(s): Gregory John Leslie, Christopher T. Stout, Naomi TolbertAbstractA plethora of research has explored how blacks and whites respond to deracialized and racialized outreach. However, these studies overwhelmingly focus on individuals' reactions to liberal black elites. We explore whether whites and/or blacks favor co-racial elites who take a conservative deracialized position in the form of support for privatizing social security or a conservative racialized position in the form of advocating for ending the norm of political correctness. Using an online experiment with an oversample of black respondents, we find that whites, and in particular white Republicans, have a strong preference for racialized black conservatives over deracialized black conservatives. In contrast, we find that blacks display a preference for deracialized co-racial conservatives, but view black and white racialized conservatives as being equally likeable.

Source: Social Science Research - December 14, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research