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Race, ideology, and the tea party: a longitudinal study
Eric D Knowles1, Brian S Lowery, Elizabeth P Shulman
1Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, New York, United States of America. eric.knowles@nyu.edu
Plos One
|July 5, 2013
Summary
Racial prejudice influenced Tea Party identification indirectly through perceptions of national decline. White identity increased with Tea Party identification, while support grew among social conservatives but not libertarians.
Area of Science:
- Political Science
- Social Psychology
- Sociology
Background:
- The Tea Party movement emerged in the US post-2008, offering a unique context to study political attitudes.
- Understanding the interplay of racial concerns and ideology within political movements is crucial.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine the longitudinal relationships between Tea Party identification, racial concerns (prejudice, identification), and ideologies (libertarianism, social conservatism).
- To investigate potential causal pathways influencing political movement affiliation.
Main Methods:
- A three-wave longitudinal study surveyed White Americans over nine months.
- Latent Growth Modeling (LGM) analyzed changes and causal relationships between variables.
Main Results:
- Racial prejudice indirectly predicted Tea Party identification via beliefs about national decline.
- Initial Tea Party identification predicted later increases in White identity.
- Support for the Tea Party declined among libertarians but increased among social conservatives.
Conclusions:
- Political judgments can "racialized" identities and movements.
- Ideological dynamics within the Tea Party favored social conservatives over libertarians.
- Findings inform theories on prejudice legitimation and political identity formation.
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