Skin Color Effects on Political Attitudes -- NOT
Can you think of any demographic characteristic of a (potential) voter that is correlated with virtually all aspects of life except for his or her political attitudes? That is, political scientists have spent decades showing us that race, ethnicity, immigration status, gender, religiosity, age, educational level, urbanicity, region of residence, marital situation, social or organizational attachments, union membership – and a bunch of other stuff – not only are associated with various aspects of private life but also with one’s partisan or policy attitudes, political identity, and political affiliations. All of those things are also associated with whether one runs for or is elected to office, at least in the United States. Now, think of a characteristic of a person that is related to his or her education, family income, perceived attractiveness, length of prison sentence for a given crime, likelihood of election to office, etc. – but not to his or her political attitudes. My co-authors and I inadvertently stumbled on just such an anomaly; it is skin color within a conventionally defined racial group.
I won’t go through the research findings here; suffice it to say that almost every scholar who has studied skin tone has found substantial social, economic, cultural, and psychological correlates. Almost no one had looked at political correlates, so when we were young and naïve (about six years ago), Traci Burch, Vesla Weaver, and I decided to do so, thinking that the topic would make for a nice article or short book. We used the seven national surveys with a skin tone measure for Blacks and Latinos. (There are no useable equivalent measures for Whites and Asian Americans.) We spent most of a year searching for patterns between skin tone and perceptions of discrimination against oneself or one’s racial or ethnic group, strength of group identification, partisanship or ideology, organizational membership, and anything else we could think of – and found essentially no pattern. Most correlations were inconsequential, and the few that seemed statistically or substantively significant went in all possible directions. Sometimes the dark-skinned perceived the most discrimination or were the most racially identified, sometimes the light-skinned, and sometimes those in the middle.
After massaging the data for a while to no avail, and then despairing for another while of all our wasted work, we finally realized that it was the very lack of pattern that was the interesting finding. (Trust an academic to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear if a publication is at stake!) The fact that skin tone is related to virtually all aspects of a person’s life except political attitudes makes it a very unusual variable, and opens a new window into the study of the American racial order.
This research is sensitive, even painful (at one conference, an audience member denounced us for “bullshit research”), but we are inching our way into a systematic analysis of the history, emotional valence, and political implications of what psychologists call “colorism.” Any reactions or suggestions for how to proceed would be most welcome!
(The December 2007 issue of Social Forces contains a report on some of our recent research on this topic. For an abstract, click here.)
Comments
An interesting (non)finding! On the one hand, I am inclined to agree with you that the lack of a correlation between skin tone and political attitudes is interesting, but on the other hand, it could simply be a case of in-group/out-group dynamics at work. Colorism might mean that whites see light-skinned blacks as more intelligent, or closer to whites than dark-skinned blacks, but in a mind that is defined by race, they are still “black.” Likewise, there may exist differentiation by skin tone within the black community, but in their relation to non-blacks, they are the same. Hence, they would have the same, or at least very similar political attitudes. Still, I think these findings are something to ponder further before giving up. After all, knowing that a line of investigation goes nowhere is worth something, too (though it doesn’t often get published!).
Posted by: Bill R. | February 18, 2008 03:36 PM
Bill,
As a long-time tenured professor myself, as well as a long-time university administrator, I appreciate the value of your “Monkey Cage” blog.
Now, in precise rely to your opening question: Yes, I can readily think of a characteristic (not really a demographic characteristic but certainly a personal characteristic no less visible than skin color) that correlates with virtually all aspects of life except for his or her political attitudes.
Much published scholarly research documents this characteristic of a person to be powerful and pervasive. Its power and pervasiveness are also frequently unrecognized or at least denied.
Despite public denials to the contrary, a large amount of research published in respected scholarly journals document the huge impact that a person’s physical attractiveness exerts in everyday life. That research also documents its significant role within political campaigns, complete with candidates and their campaign staffs being conscious about looking best. That best is looking good in ways that translate into looking presidential. It also translates into the need to possess high physical attractiveness while not appearing to expend money or effort to achieve that physical attractiveness.
Historically, overwhelmingly, the more physically attractive of the finalists receive the most votes; ranging from local political campaigns to national, primaries or general elections for president. Probably most readily acknowledged in history are the different levels of physical attractiveness between John Kennedy and his counterpart, Richard Nixon.
Among the many new looks of the presidential campaign obvious this year, is the complicating new dimension of what defines and determines physical attractiveness between individuals of different race. There is also the very delicate dimension of the degree of lightness or darkness of a person’s skin color. In fact, a classic popular genre movie that focuses on this topic is Spike Lee’s, “School Daze.” The message of that movie has much pertinence to today’s presidential campaign.
We really do know, that despite the sensitive and even painful topic, and despite denials to the contrary, with rare exception, higher physical attractiveness (and all that defines it) translates into greater perceptions of trustworthiness, expertise, leadership ability, liking, and, ultimately, more votes to be president of the United States.
Gordon Patzer
author of “Looks: Why They Matter More Than You Ever Imagined”
http://www.GordonPatzer.com
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February 19, 2008 02:02 PM