The Impact of Hispanic Ethnicity on Vote Choice
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Although research has explored how racial prejudice against African Americans influences vote choice, little research has investigated how prejudices against Hispanics might impact voters’ decisions. This paper explores how a candidate’s Hispanic ethnicity influences vote choice and how various factors might moderate that influence. In an experiment embedded in an online survey, a large sample of American adults read about the policy positions of two hypothetical candidates running for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Some respondents were offered a choice between two White candidates, while others chose between one White and one Hispanic candidate. Some respondents read the candidates’ positions on eight policy issues, while others read positions for only four issues. The results suggest that people who hold anti-Hispanic attitudes or know little about candidates’ positions on issues are less likely to vote for Hispanic candidates. Additionally, a ballot order effect – where voters support the candidate listed first on the ballot – was only observed among respondents offered a choice between two White candidates. This is among the first evidence demonstrating that candidate Hispanic ethnicity shapes vote choice in low-information elections.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date modified | December 5, 2022 |
| Publication date | July 25, 2022 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Gonzalez, Jessica |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor | Krosnick, Jon |
Subjects
| Subject | ballot name order |
|---|---|
| Subject | primacy effect |
| Subject | Hispanic ethnicity |
| Subject | prejudice |
| Subject | ethnic cue |
| Subject | information |
| Subject | vote choice |
| Genre | Text |
| Genre | Thesis |
Bibliographic information
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- Use and reproduction
- User agrees that, where applicable, content will not be used to identify or to otherwise infringe the privacy or confidentiality rights of individuals. Content distributed via the Stanford Digital Repository may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor.
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY).
Preferred citation
- Preferred citation
- Gonzalez, J. (2022). The Impact of Hispanic Ethnicity on Vote Choice. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at https://purl.stanford.edu/sk926rs6167
Collection
Stanford University, Department of Political Science, Undergraduate Thesis Collection
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