Perceptions of Immigrant Threat, American Identity, and Vote Choice in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election
- PDF / 758,872 Bytes
- 17 Pages / 439.37 x 666.142 pts Page_size
- 57 Downloads / 194 Views
Perceptions of Immigrant Threat, American Identity, and Vote Choice in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election James C. Garand1 · Dan Qi1 · Max Magaña1 Accepted: 1 September 2020 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Among the central tenets of social identity theory are the arguments that individuals’ attitudes and behavior are shaped by (1) perceptions of threat by out-groups toward individuals’ in-group(s) and (2) the strength of individuals’ identification with the in-group perceived to be under threat. In this paper we explore how American identity and Americans’ perceptions of immigrant threat work together to shape their vote choices in the 2016 presidential election. With the presidential campaign of Donald Trump characterized by strong rhetoric that emphasized immigrant threat and American identity themes, we suggest that the effects of immigrant threat perceptions are amplified by individuals’ American identity, with those who have a strong American identity more likely to translate immigrant threat perceptions into support for Trump than those with weaker levels of American identity. Moreover, we consider whether the effects of American identity on vote choice are activated and moderated by individuals’ perceptions of immigrant threat. Using data from the 2016 American National Election Study, we find that the effects of immigrant threat perceptions and American identity on vote choice are magnified by each other: the effects of immigrant threat perceptions are enhanced among individuals with a strong American identity, and the effects of American identity are activated and magnified by perceptions of immigrant threat. Keywords Immigrant threat · American identity · U.S. presidential voting
Paper presented at the 2019 annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, April 4-7, 2019,Chicago, Illinois. We are indebted to three anonymous reviewers and the editors of this journal for theirconstructive comments on this paper. Replication data and a .do file for replicating our analyses can befound at: https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.7910/ DVN/OJQV5O. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s1110 9-020-09644-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * James C. Garand [email protected] Extended author information available on the last page of the article
13
Vol.:(0123456789)
Political Behavior
Introduction Immigration remains one of the most highly contentious issues in American politics. There is considerable disagreement among Americans about whether immigration has an overall positive or negative effect on American society, and the idea that immigrants pose an economic, cultural, and security threat has drawn support among a sizeable segment of the American population. During the 2016 presidential campaign, candidate Donald Trump reinforced public concerns about immigrant threat in his campaign rhetoric, particularly in te
Data Loading...
