On March 8, 2022 at 12:30 pm via Zoom, Politics Forum hosts LaFleur Stephens-Dougan, Ph.D. as she presents “White Americans’ Reactions to Racial Disparities in COVID-19.”
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There is a documented partisan divide in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States with Republicans reporting lower rates of social distancing behavior relative to Democrats. Dr. Stephens-Dougan hypothesizes, however, that the partisan response to COVID-19 is driven in part by information about racial disparities in mortality rates from the disease. Previous research indicates that White Republicans are more likely to express negative attitudes about African Americans, whereas White Democrats are more likely to express positive attitudes about African Americans. Dr. Stephens-Dougan argues that this difference in racial attitudes between the two parties might affect the partisan response to a disease that disproportionately affects Black people. The results of two survey experiments, including a survey experiment on a nationally representative sample of approximately 600 White Americans, indicate that strong and moderate White Republicans were less supportive of efforts to slow the spread of the pandemic when exposed to information about the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on African Americans. Conversely, White Americans who did not identify as strong and moderate Republicans in some instances became more supportive of efforts to slow the spread of the pandemic.
LaFleur Stephens-Dougan, Assistant Professor of Politics at Princeton University, earned her Ph.D. in Public Policy and Political Science from the University of Michigan. Her research interests include racial attitudes, black politics and public opinion. Her book Race to the Bottom: How Racial Appeals Work in American Politics is forthcoming with the University of Chicago Press. She is a recipient of the National Science Foundation’s Time-Sharing in Experimental Social Sciences Research Grant, as well as grants from the Social Science Research Council and the Center for the Study of Public Policy in Diverse Societies.