Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T01:03:01.089Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

What Makes a Good Neighbor? Race, Place, and Norms of Political Participation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 May 2018

ALLISON P. ANOLL*
Affiliation:
Vanderbilt University
*
Allison P. Anoll is an Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Vanderbilt University, 230 Appleton Pl., PMB 505, Nashville, TN 37203 ([email protected]).

Abstract

Social norms are thought to motivate behaviors like political participation, but context should influence both the content and activation of these norms. I show that both race and neighborhood context moderate the social value of political participation in the United States. Using original survey data and a survey experiment, I find that Whites, Blacks, and Latinos not only conceptualize participation differently, but also asymmetrically reward those who are politically active, with minority Americans often providing more social incentives for participation than Whites. I combine this survey data with geographic demography from the American Community Survey and find that neighborhood characteristics outpace individual-level indicators in predicting the social value of political participation. The findings suggest that scholars of political behavior should consider race, place, and social norms when seeking to understand participation in an increasingly diverse America.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

I am grateful to Gary Segura, Justin Grimmer, Douglas McAdam, Cindy Kam, Efrén Pérez, Josh Clinton, and Larry Bartels for detailed feedback on this paper at multiple stages. I am thankful for helpful comments from anonymous reviewers, editors, Vanderbilt faculty, Stanford faculty and seminar participants, commenters at the APSA 2015 Annual Meeting, and scholars at Carlton College, Williams College, University of Rochester, Florida State University, and Harvard University, where I presented this project. An earlier version of this paper was circulated under the title, “How Race and Community Affect Norms of Political Action in America.” Data collection was generously supported by Stanford’s Laboratory for the Study of American Values, the Office of the Vice Provost for Graduate Education at Stanford University, Kyle Dropp, and Gary Segura. Replication files can be found on the American Political Science Review Dataverse: https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/SJI4IA

References

REFERENCES

Anoll, Allison. 2014. “Racial Differences in the Socioeconomic-Participation Relationship.” Midwest Political Science Association, Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL. Accessed on April 3–6, 2014.Google Scholar
Ansolabehere, Stephen, and Hersh, Eitan. 2013. “Gender, Race, Age, and Voting: A Research Note.” Politics and Governance 1 (2): 132–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Asch, Solomon E. 1955. “Opinions and Social Pressure.”Scientific American 193: 3155.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barber, Michael, and Imai, Kosuke. 2014. “Estimating Neighborhood Effects on Turnout from Geo-Coded Voter Registration Records.” Princeton, NJ: Mimeo.Google Scholar
Barreto, Matt A., Manzano, Sylvia, Ramírez, Ricardo, and Rim, Kathy. 2009. “Mobilization, Participation, and Solidaridad: Latino Participation in the 2006 Immigration Protest Rallies.” Urban Affairs Review 44 (5): 736–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barreto, Matt A., and Segura, Gary M.. 2009. “Estimating the Effects of Traditional Predictors, Group Specific Forces, and Anti-Black Affect on 2008 Presidential Vote Among Latinos and Non-Hispanic Whites.” Ohio State University Conference on the 2008 Election, Columbus, OH.Google Scholar
Beltrán, Cristina. 2010. The Trouble with Unity: Latino Politics and the Creation of Identity Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Benmayor, Rina, Torruellas, Rosa M., and Juarbe, Ana L.. 1997. “Claiming Cultural Citizenship in East Harlem: ‘Si Esto Puede Ayudar a la Comunidad Mía. . .”’ In Latino Cultural Citizenship: Claiming Identity, Space, and Rights, eds. Flores, William V. and Benmayor, Rina. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 152209.Google Scholar
Butler, Daniel, and Broockman, David. 2011. “Do Politicians Racially Discriminate Against Constituents? A Field Experiment on State Legislators.” American Journal of Political Science 55 (3): 463477.Google Scholar
Byron, Kristin, and Baldridge, David C.. 2007. “E-Mail Recipients’ Impressions of Senders’ Likability: The Interactive Effect of Nonverbal Cues and Recipients Personality.” Journal of Business Communication 44 (2): 137–60.Google Scholar
Chow, Shein-Chung, and Liu, Jen-Pei. 1999. Design and Analysis of Bioavailibility and Bioequivalence Studies, 2nd ed. New York: Marcel Dekker, Inc.Google Scholar
Cialdini, Robert B., Kallgren, Carl A., and Reno, Raymond R.. 1991. “A Focus Theory of Normative Conduct: A Theoretical Refinement and Reevaluation of the Role of Norms in Human Behavior.” Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 21: 201–35.Google Scholar
Cialdini, Robert B., and Trost, Melanie R.. 1998. “Social Influence, Social Norms, Conformity, Compliance.” In Handbook of Psychology, 4th ed., eds. Gilbert, Daniel, Fiske, Susan, and Lindzey, Gardner. New York: McGraw-Hill, 151–92.Google Scholar
Citrin, Jack, Lerman, Amy, Murakami, Michael, and Pearson, Kathryn. 2007. “Testing Huntington: Is Hispanic Immigration a Threat to American Identity?Perspectives on Politics 5 (1): 3148.Google Scholar
Crandall, Christian S. 1988. “Social Contagion of Binge Eating.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 55 (4): 588–98.Google Scholar
Darley, John M., and Batson, Daniel. 1973. “’From Jerusalem to Jericho’: A Study of Situational and Dispositional Variables in Helping Behavior.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 27 (1): 100–8.Google Scholar
Dàvila, Arlene. 2012. Latinos, Inc.: The Marketing and Making of a People. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Dawson, Michael. 1994. Behind the Mule: Race and Class in African-American Politics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Dawson, Michael. 2001. Black Visions: The Roots of Contemporary African-American Political Ideologies. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
DeSante, Christopher D., and Perry, Brittany N.. 2016. “Bridging the Gap: How Geographic Context Affects Political Knowledge Among Citizen and Non-Citizen Latinos.” American Politics Research 44 (3): 548–77.Google Scholar
Dougherty, Kevin D. 2003. “How Monochromatic Is Church Membership? Racial-Ethnic Diversity in Religious Community.” Sociology of Religion 64 (1): 6585.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Downs, Anthony. 1957. An Economic Theory of Democracy. New York: Harper.Google Scholar
Enos, Ryan D., Kaufman, Aaron Russell, and Sands, Melissa L.. 2016. “Can Violent Protest Change Local Policy Support? Evidence from the Aftermath of the 1992 Los Angeles Riot.” Urban Political Economy Conference, Vanderbilt University, March 17-18, 2017.Google Scholar
Flores, William V., and Benymayor, Rina. 1997. “Constructing Cultural Citizenship.” In Latino Cultural Citizenship: Claiming Identity, Space, and Rights, eds. Flores, William V., and Benmayor, Rina. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 123.Google Scholar
Fraga, Bernard. 2016. “Candidates or Districts? Reevaluating the Role of Race on Voter Turnout.” American Journal of Political Science 60 (1): 97122.Google Scholar
Fryer, Roland G., and Torelli, Paul. 2010. “An Empirical Analysis of ‘Acting White.’Journal of Public Economics 94 (5-6): 380–96.Google Scholar
Gardner, Amy, Thompson, Krissah, and Rucker, Philip. 2010. “Beck, Palin Tell Thousands to ‘Restore America’.” The Washington Post, August 29, 2010. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/28/_AR2010082801106_pf.html.Google Scholar
Gelman, Andrew, and Hill, Jennifer. 2007. Data Analysis Using Regression and Multi-level/Hierarchical Models. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gerber, Alan S., Green, Donald P., and Larimer, Christopher W.. 2008. “Social Pressure and Voter Turnout: Evidence from a Large-Scale Field Experiment.” American Political Science Review 102 (1): 3347.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gerber, Alan S., Huber, Gregory A., Doherty, David, and Dowling, Conor. 2016. “Why People Vote: Estimating the Social Returns of Voting.” British Journal of Political Science 46 (2): 241–64.Google Scholar
Gerber, Alan S., and Rogers, Todd. 2009. “Descriptive Social Norms and Motivation to Vote: Everybody’s Voting and So Should You.” The Journal of Politics 71 (1): 178–91.Google Scholar
Gillion, Daniel Q. 2013. The Political Power of Protest: Minority Activism and Shifts in Public Policy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hamilton, David L., and Fallot, Roger D.. 1974. “Information Salience as a Weighting Factor in Impression Formation.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 30 (4): 444–8.Google Scholar
Haney-Lopez, Ian F. 1997. White by Law: The Legal Construction of Race. New York: New York University.Google Scholar
Harris-Lacewell, Melissa Victoria. 2004. Barbershops, Bibles, and BET: Everyday Black Talk and the Development of Black Political Thought. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Hauser, Robert M., and Warren, John Robert. 1997. “Socioeconomic Indexes for Occupations: A Review, Update, Critique.” Sociological Methodology 27 (1): 177298.Google Scholar
Hochschild, Jennifer L., Weaver, Vesla M., and Burch, Traci R.. 2012. Creating a New Racial Order: How Immigration, Multiracialism, Genomics, and the Young Can Remake Race in America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Hogan, Wesley C. 2007. Many Minds, One Heart: SNCC’s Dream for a New America. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Hogg, Michael. 2003. “Intergroup Relations.” In Handbook of Social Psychology, ed. Delamater, John. New York: Kluwer/Plenum, 479501.Google Scholar
Holland, Paul W. 1986. ”Statistics and Causal Inference.” Journal of the American Statistical Association 81 (396): 945–60.Google Scholar
Huntington, Samuel P. 2004. Who Are We? The Challenges to America?s National Identity. New York: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
Hutchens, Robert. 2001. “Numerical Measures of Segregation: Desirable Properties and Their Implications.” Mathematical Social Sciences 42: 1329.Google Scholar
Jiménez, Tomás R. 2010. Replenished Ethnicity: Mexican Americans, Immigration, and Identity. Berkeley, CA: University of Berkeley Press.Google Scholar
Jones, Nicholas A., and Bullock, Jungmiwha. 2012. “The Two or More Races Population: 2010.” United States Census Bureau, September, 2012. http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-13.pdf.Google Scholar
Katznelson, Ira. 2005. When Affirmative Action Was White: An Untold History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America. New York: W.W. Norton and Company.Google Scholar
Keyssar, Alexander. 2000. The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States.” New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
King, Gary, and Zeng, Langche. 2006. “The Dangers of Extreme Counterfactuals.” Political Analysis 14 (2): 131–51.Google Scholar
Krogstad, Jens Manuel, and Cohn, D’Vera. 2014. “U.S. Census Looking at Big Changes In How It Asks about Race and Ethnicity.” Pew Research Center. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/03/14/u-s-census-looking-at-big-changes-in-how-it-asks-about-race-and-ethnicity.Google Scholar
Larson, Jennifer M., and Lewis, Janet I.. 2017. “Ethnic Networks.” American Journal of Political Science 6 (2): 350–64.Google Scholar
Lawler, Edward J., Ridgeway, Cecilia, and Markovsky, Barry. 1993. “Structural Social Psychology and the Micro-Macro Problem.” Sociological Theory 11 (3): 268–90.Google Scholar
Lerman, Amy, and Weaver, Vesla. 2014. Arresting Citizenship: The Democratic Consequences of American Crime Control. Chicago: Chicago University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Limbaugh, Rush. 2010. “Transcript: NFL’s ‘Futbol Americano’ Telecast is a Symptom of What Ails America.” http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2010/09/27/nfl_s_futbol_americano_telecast_is_a_symptom_of_what_ails_america.Google Scholar
Lofquist, Daphne, Lugaila, Terry, O’Connell, Martin, and Feliz, Sarah. 2012. “Households and Families: 2010.” United States Census Bureau. http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-14.pdf.Google Scholar
Logan, John R. 2011. “Separate and Unequal: The Neighborhood Gap for Blacks, Hispanics and Asians in Metropolitan America.” Census Brief prepared for Project US2010. http://www.s4.brown.edu/us2010.Google Scholar
Logan, John R., Stowell, Jacob, and Oakley, Deidre. 2002. “Choosing Segregation: Racial Imbalance in American Public Schools, 1990-2000.” Lewis Mumford Center for Comparative Urban and Regional Research, University of Albany, NY.Google Scholar
Logan, John R., and Stults, Brian J.. 2011. “The Persistence of Segregation in the Metropolis: New Findings from the 2010 Census.” Census Brief prepared for Project US2010. http://www.s4.brown.edu/us2010.Google Scholar
Madison, James. [1787] 2004. “Federalist No. 10.” In The Federalist Papers. New York: Pocket Books.Google Scholar
Masuoka, Natalie, and Junn, Jane. 2013. The Politics of Belonging: Race, Public Opinion, and Immigration. Chicago: Chicago University Press.Google Scholar
McAdam, Douglas. 1988. Freedom Summer. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
McClendon, Gwyneth H. 2014. “Social Esteem and Participation in Contentious Politics: A Field Experiment at an LGBT Pride Rally.” American Journal of Political Science 58 (2): 279–90.Google Scholar
McKenzie, Brian D. 2004. “Religious Social Networks, Indirect Mobilization, and African-American Political Participation.” Political Research Quarterly 57 (4): 621–32.Google Scholar
McPherson, Miller, Smith-Lovin, Lynn, and Cook, James M.. 2001. “Birds of a Feather: Homophily in Social Networks.” Annual Review of Sociology 27: 415–44.Google Scholar
Michelson, Melissa. 2003. “The Corrosive Effect of Acculturation: How Mexican Americans Lose Political Trust.” Social Science Quarterly 84 (4): 918–33.Google Scholar
Minnesota Population Center. 2011. National Historical Geographic Information System: Version 2.0. Database. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota. Accessed on March 8, 2015. www.nhgis.org.Google Scholar
Mummolo, Jonathan, and Nall, Clayton. 2016. “Why Partisans Do Not Sort: The Constraints on Political Segregation.” The Journal of Politics 79 (1): 4559.Google Scholar
Oliver, J. Eric. 2010. The Paradoxes of Integration: Race, Neighborhood, and Civic Life in Multiethnic America. Chicago: Chicago University Press.Google Scholar
Olson, Mancur. 1965. The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Omi, Michael, and Winant, Howard. 1994. Racial Formation in the United States: From the 1960s to the 1990s. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Paluck, Elizabeth L., and Green, Donald P.. 2009. “Deference, Dissent, and Dispute Resolution: A Field Experiment on a Mass Media Intervention in Rwanda.” American Political Science Review 103 (4): 622–44.Google Scholar
Panagopoulos, Costas. 2010. “Affect, Social Pressure and Prosocial Motivation: Field Experimental Evidence of the Mobilizing Effects of Pride, Shame and Publicizing Voting Behavior.” Political Behavior 32 (3): 369–86.Google Scholar
Pantoja, Adrian, Ramirez, Ricardo, and Segura, Gary. 2001. “Citizens by Choice, Voters by Necessity: Patterns in Political Mobilization by Naturalized Latino.” Political Research Quarterly 54 (4): 729–50.Google Scholar
Reardon, Sean F., and Owens, Ann. 2014. “60 Years After Brown: Trends and Consequences of School Segregation.” Annual Review of Sociology 40: 199218.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reardon, Sean R., Yun, John T., and Eitle, Tamela McNulty. 2000. “The Changing Structure of School Segregation: Measurement and Evidence of Multiracial Metropolitan-Area School Segregation, 1989–1995.” Demography 37 (3): 351–64.Google Scholar
Ridgeway, Cecila, and Correll, Shelley. 2006. “Consensus and the Creation of Status Beliefs.” Social Forces 85 (1): 431–53.Google Scholar
Rogers, Todd, Fox, Craig R., and Gerber, Alan S.. 2013. “Rethinking Why People Vote.” In The Behavioral Foundations of Public Policy, ed. Shafir, Eldar. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 91107.Google Scholar
Rubin, Donald B. 1974. “Estimating Causal Effects of Treatments in Randomized and Nonrandomized Studies.” Journal of Educational Psychology 66 (5): 688701.Google Scholar
Salisbury, Robert H. 1969. “An Exchange Theory of Interest Groups.” Midwest Journal of Political Science 13 (1): 132.Google Scholar
Schwartz, Shalom H. 1977. “Normative Influence on Altruism.” In Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 10, ed. Berkowitz, Leonard. New York: Academic Press, 221–79.Google Scholar
Segura, Gary. 2006. “Symposium Introduction: Immigration and National Identity.” Perspectives on Politics 4 (2): 227–78.Google Scholar
Sen, Maya, and Wasow, Omar. 2016. “Race as a ’Bundle of Sticks’: Designs that Estimate Effects of Seemingly Immutable Characteristics.” Annual Review of Political Science 19: 499522.Google Scholar
Sherif, M. 1936. The Psychology of Social Norms. New York: Harper.Google Scholar
Sinclair, Betsy. 2012. The Social Citizen: Peer Networks and Political Behavior. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Snyder, Mark, and Haugen, Julie A.. 1994. “Why Does Behavioral Confirmation Occur? A Functional Perspective on the Role of the Perceiver.” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 30: 218–46.Google Scholar
Stolle, Dietlind, Soroka, Stuart, and Johnston, Richard. 2008. “When Does Diversity Erode Trust? Neighborhood Diversity, Interpersonal Trust and the Mediating Effect of Social Interactions.” Political Studies 56 (1): 5775.Google Scholar
Takaki, Ronald. 2008. A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Company.Google Scholar
Tankard, Margaret E., and Paluck, Elizabeth Levy. 2016. “Norm Perception as a Vehicle for Social Change.” Social Issues and Policy Review 10 (1): 181211.Google Scholar
Taylor, Paul, Lopez, Mark Hugo, Martínez, Jessica, and Velasco, Gabriel. 2012. “When Labels Don’t Fit: Hispanics and Their Views of Identity.” Pew Charitable Trust: Hispanic Trends Project, April 4, 2012. http://www.pewhispanic.org/2012/04/04/iii-the-american-experience.Google Scholar
Taylor, Paul, Morin, Rich, Cohn, D’Vera, and Wang, Wendy. 2008. “American Mobility: Who Moves? Who Stays Put? Where’s Home?” Pew Research Center. http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/files/2010/10/Movers-and-Stayers.pdf.Google Scholar
Uggen, Christopher, Shannon, Sarah, and Manza, Jeff. 2012. “State-Level Estimates of Felon Disenfranchisement in the United States, 2010.” The Sentencing Project.Google Scholar
Uhlaner, Carole J., Cain, Bruce E., and Kiewiet, D. Roderick. 1989. “Political Participation of Ethnic Minorities in the 1980s.” Political Behavior 11 (3): 195231.Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Labor. 1965. “The Negro Family: The Case for National Action.” Office of Policy Planning and Research, March, 1965. http://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/history/webid-meynihan.htm.Google Scholar
Velez, Yamil Ricardo, and Wong, Grace. 2017. “Assessing Contextual Measurement Strategies.” The Journal of Politics 79 (3): 1084–9.Google Scholar
Verba, Sidney, and Nie, Norman H.. 1972. Participation in America: Political Democracy and Social Equality. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Verba, Sidney, Schlozman, Kay, and Brady, Henry. 1995. Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics. Boston, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Wheaton, Sarah. 2013. “For First Time on Record, Black Voting Rate Outpaced Rate for Whites in 2012.” New York Times. Accessed on May 8, 2013. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/09/us/politics/rate?of?black?voters?surpassed?that?for?whites?in?2012.html?hpr=0.Google Scholar
Wilson, William Julius. 2011. “The Declining Significance of Race: Revisited and Revised.” Daedalus 140 (2): 5569.Google Scholar
Wolfinger, Raymond E., and Rosenstone, Steven J.. 1980. Who Votes? New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Wong, David W. S. 2013. “Comparing Traditional and Spatial Segregation Measures: A Spatial Scale Perspective.” Urban Geography 25 (1): 6682.Google Scholar
Wong, Cara, Bowers, Jake, Williams, Tarah, and Simmons, Katherine Drake. 2012. “Bringing the Person Back In: Boundaries, Perceptions, and the Measurement of Social Context.” The Journal of Politics 74 (4): 1153–70.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Anoll supplementary material

Anoll supplementary material 1

Download Anoll supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 228.7 KB
Supplementary material: Link
Link
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.