Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T08:59:32.091Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Self-stereotyping as “Evangelical Republican”: An Empirical Test

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2013

Stratos Patrikios
Stratos Patrikios*
Affiliation:
University of Strathclyde
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Stratos Patrikios, University of Strathclyde, School of Government and Public Policy, 16 Richmond Street, Glasgow, G1 1XQ, UK. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The prominence of evangelical Christians in the electoral base of the Republican Party is a noted feature of recent American elections. This prominence is linked to a key stereotype that saturates public discourse: “born-again/evangelical Republicanism.” The stereotype fuses religious and partisan social group membership to create a composite social label. Using a social categorization approach, which challenges the assumptions and methods of existing research, the present analysis asks whether voters embrace this stereotype in their definitions of self. The article employs confirmatory factor analysis of religious and partisan identity constructs from a national internet survey, the 2008 Cooperative Congressional Election Study, and finds evidence of the presence of this religious-partisan stereotype in individual self-views, and of the backlash that it has produced, particularly among citizens that are exposed to public discourse on American elections.

Type
Articles
Information
Politics and Religion , Volume 6 , Issue 4 , December 2013 , pp. 800 - 822
Copyright
Copyright © Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association 2013 

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.)

References

REFERENCES

Ansolabehere, Stephen. 2009. Cooperative Congressional Election Study, 2008: Common content. [Computer File] Release 1: February 2. Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Google Scholar
Arbuckle, James. 2005. Amos 6.0 User's Guide. Chicago, IL: SmallWaters Corp.Google Scholar
Bartels, Larry. 1996. “Uninformed Votes: Information Effects in Presidential Elections.” American Journal of Political Science 40:194–230.Google Scholar
Bellah, Robert. 1967. “Civil Religion in America.” Daedalus 96:1–21.Google Scholar
Bolce, Louis, and De Maio, Gerald. 2008. “A Prejudice for the Thinking Classes: Media Exposure, Political Sophistication, and the Anti-Christian Fundamentalist.” American Politics Research 36:155–185.Google Scholar
Bolce, Louis, and De Maio, Gerald. 2007. “Secularists, Antifundamentalists, and the New Religious Divide in the American Electorate.” In From Pews to Polling Places: Faith and Politics in the American Religious Mosaic, ed. Wilson, J.M.Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Bolce, Louis, and De Maio, Gerald. 1999b. “The Anti-Christian Fundamentalist Factor in Contemporary Politics.” Public Opinion Quarterly 63:508–542.Google Scholar
Bolce, Louis, and De Maio, Gerald. 1999a. “Religious Outlook, Culture War Politics, and Antipathy toward Christian Fundamentalists.” Public Opinion Quarterly 63:29–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brewer, Mark. 2009. Party Images in the American Electorate. New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Brewer, Mark, Kersh, Rogan, and Petersen, R. Eric. 2003. “Assessing Conventional Wisdom about Religion and Politics: A Preliminary View from the Pews.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 42:125–136.Google Scholar
Calfano, Brian, and Djupe, Paul A.. 2009. “God Talk: Religious Cues and Electoral Support.” Political Research Quarterly 62:329–339.Google Scholar
Campbell, David E., Green, John C., and Layman, Geoffrey. 2011. “The Party Faithful: Partisan Images, Candidate Religion, and the Electoral Impact of Party Identification.” American Journal of Political Science 55:42–58.Google Scholar
Converse, Philip E. 1964. “The Nature of Belief Systems in Mass Publics.” In Ideology and Discontent, ed. Apter, D.New York, NY: Free Press.Google Scholar
Crisp, Richard, and Hewstone, Miles. 2007. “Multiple Social Categorization.” In Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, ed. Zanna, M.P.San Diego, CA: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Dixon, Richard D., Levy, Diane E., and Lowery, Roger C.. 1988. “Asking the ‘Born-Again’ Question.” Review of Religious Research 30:33–39.Google Scholar
Eckstein, Harry. 1975. “Case Study and Theory in Political Science.” In The Handbook of Political Science, eds., Greenstein, F.I., and Polsby, N.W.. Reading, MD: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
Fiske, Donald. 1982. “Convergent-discriminant Validation in Measurement and Research Strategies.” In New Directions for Methodology of Social and Behavioral Science, eds. Brinberg, D., and Kidder, L.. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
Green, Donald, Palmquist, Bradely, and Schickler, Eric. 2002. Partisan Hearts and Minds: Political Parties and the Social Identities of Voters. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Green, John C., Rozell, Mark J., and Wilcox, Clyde, eds. 2003. The Christian Right in American Politics. Washington DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Greene, Steven. 1999. “Understanding Party Identification: A Social Identity Approach.” Political Psychology 20:393–403.Google Scholar
Greene, Steven. 2002. “The Social-psychological Measurement of Partisanship.” Political Behavior 24:171–197.Google Scholar
Greene, Steven. 2004. “Social Identity Theory and Party Identification.” Social Science Quarterly 85:136–153.Google Scholar
Hout, Michael, and Fischer, Claude S.. 2002. “Why More Americans Have No Religious Preference.” American Sociological Review 67:165–190.Google Scholar
Husser, Jason. 2011. Polarized Churches: The Influence of Politics on American Religious Behavior. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago.Google Scholar
Iyengar, Shanto, Sood, Gaurav, and Lelkes, Yphtach. 2012. “Affect, Not Ideology: A Social Identity Perspective on Polarization.” Public Opinion Quarterly 76:405–431.Google Scholar
Jelen, Ted, Smidt, Corwin E., and Wilcox, Clyde. 1993. “The Political Effects of the Born-again Phenomenon.” In Rediscovering the Religious Factor in American Politics, eds. Leege, D.C., and Kellstedt, L.A.. New York, NY: Sharpe.Google Scholar
Lau, Richard. 1989. “Individual and Contextual Influences on Group Identification.” Social Psychology Quarterly 52:220–231.Google Scholar
Layman, Geoffrey. 2001. The Great Divide: Religious and Cultural Conflict in American Party Politics. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Lazarsfeld, Paul, Berelson, Bernard, and Gaudet, Hazel. 1944. The People's Choice: How the Voter Makes Up His Mind in a Presidential Campaign. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Leege, David, and Kellstedt, Lyman A., eds. 1993. Rediscovering the Religious Factor in American Politics. New York, NY: Sharpe.Google Scholar
Lipset, Seymour Martin, and Rokkan, Stein. 1967. “Cleavage Structures, Party Systems, and Voter Alignments: An Introduction.” In Party Systems and Voter Alignments: Cross-national perspectives, eds. Lipset, S.M., and Rokkan, S.. New York, NY: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Mael, Fred, and Tetrick, Lois. 1992. “Identifying Organizational Identification.” Educational and Psychological Measurement 54:813–824.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDermott, Monica. 2007. “Voting for Catholic Candidates: The Evolution of a Stereotype.” Social Science Quarterly 88:953–969.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oakes, Penelope, Turner, John, and Haslam, S. Alexander. 1991. “Perceiving People as Group Members: The Role of Fit in the Salience of Social Categorizations.” British Journal of Social Psychology 30:125–144.Google Scholar
Olson, Laura R., and Warber, Adam. 2008. “Belonging, Behaving, and Believing: Assessing the Role of Religion on Presidential Approval.” Political Research Quarterly 61:192–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Patrikios, Stratos. 2008. “American Republican Religion? Disentangling the Causal Link between Religion and Politics in the US.” Political Behavior 30:367–389.Google Scholar
Putnam, Robert, and Campbell, David E.. 2010. American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
Roccas, Sonia, and Brewer, Marilynn B.. 2002. “Social Identity Complexity.” Personality and Social Psychology Review 6:88–106.Google Scholar
Roof, Wade Clark. 1980. “The Ambiguities of ‘Religious Preference’ in Survey Research: A Methodological Note.” Public Opinion Quarterly 44:403–407.Google Scholar
Rose, Richard, and Urwin, Derek. 1970. “Persistence and Change in Western Party Systems since 1945.” Political Studies 18:287–319.Google Scholar
Sherkat, Darren E. 2007. “Religion and Survey Non-Response Bias: Toward Explaining the Moral Voter Gap between Surveys and Voting.” Sociology of Religion 68:83–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simon, Bernd, and Hamilton, David L.. 1994. “Social identity and Self-stereotyping: The Effects of Relative Group Size and Group Status.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 66:699–711.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stryker, Sheldon. 2000. “Identity Competition: Key to Differential Social Movement Participation?” In Self, Identity, and Social Movements, eds., Stryker, S., Owens, T.J., and White, R.W.. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Tajfel, Herni. 1978. “Social Categorization, Social Identity and Social Comparison.” In Differentiation Between Social Groups, ed. Tajfel, H.London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Turner, John. 1982. “Towards a Cognitive Redefinition of the Social Group.” In Social Identity and Intergroup Relations, ed. Tajfel, H.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Turner, John, Hogg, Michael A., Oakes, Penelope J., Reicher, Stephen D., and Wetherell, Margaret S.. 1987. Rediscovering the Social Group: A Self Categorization Theory. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Wald, Kenneth, Owen, Dennis E., and Hill, Samuel S.. 1988. “Churches as Political Communities.” American Political Science Review 82:531–548.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wald, Kenneth, and Wilcox, Clyde. 2006. “Getting Religion: Has Political Science Rediscovered the Faith Factor?” American Political Science Review 100:523–537.Google Scholar
Weisberg, Herbert, and Hasecke, Edward B.. 1999. The Psychological Underpinnings of Party Identification. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago.Google Scholar
Wilcox, Clyde. 1986. “Fundamentalists and Politics: An Analysis of the Effects of Differing Operational Definitions.” The Journal of Politics 48:1041–1051.Google Scholar
Young, Neil J. 2012. “Romney Finds Religion.” The Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/neil-j-young/romney-finds-religion_b_1846542.html.Google Scholar
Ysseldyk, Renate, Matheson, Kimberly, and Anisman, Hymie. 2010. “Religiosity as Identity: Toward an Understanding of Religion from a Social Identity Perspective.” Personality and Social Psychology Review 14:60–71.Google Scholar