Public Opinion, Race, and Religion

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Public Opinion, Race, and Religion
Public Opinion and Political Participation

• February 2

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Race and Public Opinion

• History of racism
• Shared experiences shapes opinions

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Race and Public Opinion

• Areas of research include
• Racial attitudes
• Differences in opinion across races and
  ethnicities
• Public opinion patterns of a particular race or
  ethnicity

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Public Opinion, Race, and Ethnicity

• Race or ethnicity serves as the main independent
  variable of interest
• Used to try and predict a wide range of dependent
  variables

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Public Opinion, Race, and Ethnicity

• African American public opinion and differences
  in the views of whites and blacks has
  received the most attention
• Differences frequently largest

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An Example of a GapFrom Page and Shapiros The
Rational Public
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Latino Public Opinion

• Study of Latino public opinion in the U.S.
  relatively new

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Latino Public Opinion

• Researchers in this field face several challenges
• Low numbers in most surveys of the U.S. as a
  whole
• Population heavily concentrated in a handful of
  states
• Latino encompasses people originally from a
  number of different countries

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Latino Public Opinion

• Major issue
• Is there such a thing as Latino public opinion?

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Latino Public Opinion

• Latino Public Opinion
• Carole Jean Uhlaner and F. Chris Garcia
• Summarizes the state of research on Latino public
  opinion
• Raises question Is there a group of people who
  share enough characteristics or who have enough
  of a feeling of identification with one another
  that they can truly be classified as a
  distinctive community, in short, a public?

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The Latino National Political Survey

• First major study of Latino public opinion
• Conducted 1989-1990
• 3 objectives
• Find out as much as possible on Latino opinions
• Establish a baseline of knowledge on Latino views
  that future studies could build on
• Establish empirically whether there is such a
  thing as a national community of Latinos

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The Latino National Political Survey

• Survey designers faces a number of methodological
  challenges
• How to draw an adequate sample of a rare (9
  nationally at the time) and scattered population
• Sample size versus cost
• How to identify people as Latino
• National origin? Last name? Self-identification?
  
• Language issues
• No data and experience to draw from in sampling
  or survey design

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The Latino National Political Survey Sampling
Decisions

• Sampled only the 3 largest Latino groups
• Mexican Americans
• Puerto Ricans
• Cuban Americans

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The Latino National Political Survey Sampling
Decisions

• In-person interviews made sample of entire U.S.
  geographic area too costly
• BUT recognized sampling only from areas with a
  high density of Latinos might introduce bias
• Their solution any standard metropolitan
  statistical area with at least 3 Latino
  population qualified for inclusion
• Took a sample of those MSAs, that included MSAs
  with high, medium, and low density Latino
  populations

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Latino Public Opinion?

• Some evidence of a perception of a common
  cultural identity but much less for a common
  political interest
• Survey show variations by national origin groups,
  generational status, and immigration status

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Latino Public Opinion?

• Latinos appear more optimistic about their own
  lives, government and economy
• This confidence may fade by generation
• They tend to trust government more (especially
  Cuban Americans) and be less cynical about
  politics
• This also may fade by generation

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What do Latinos want?

• Uhlaner and Garcia admit that its difficult to
  answer the question since there is so much
  variation in the Latino population
• BUT they identify several exceptions
• Increasing low wages and greater job
  opportunities receive a higher priority ranking
• Stronger support for strong, active governments
  that provide collective benefits

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What do Latinos want?

• Support for bilingual education high but varies
  by citizenship
• Significant variations in views on immigration

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Immigration Controversy

• LNPS report on immigration views created
  controversy
• Asked do you agree or disagree with the following
  statement there are too many immigrants coming
  to the United States
• Reported that
• 70 of Cuban Americans said yes
• 75 of Mexican Americans said yes
• 79 of Puerto Ricans said yes
• BUT almost know one identified this as the most
  important problem

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Immigration Controversy

• Generational differences
• Income differences
• Regional differences (by state)

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What do we know about Latino public opinion?

• Considerable diversity of opinions exist among
  Latinos
• The opinions of immigrants from South American
  countries have received little study

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Asian Public Opinion

• The opinions of Asian Americans have received
  even less study
• Considerable diversity exists among Asians

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Asian Public Opinion

• Is there such a thing as Asian public opinion?
• Uhlaner and Garcias question about Latinos is a
  good one to ask about the Asian American
  population as well. Is there a group of people
  who share enough characteristics or who have
  enough of a feeling of identification with one
  another that they can truly be classified as a
  distinctive community, in short, a public?

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Public Opinion and Religion

• Religion serves as the chief independent
  variable, used to attempt to explain a variety of
  dependent variables.
• Studies generally limited to Catholics, Jews, and
  Protestants, or subgroups of those.

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Public Opinion and Religion

• Areas of study include
• How opinions vary across religions
• The opinions of members of particular religions
• How religious beliefs shape political views and
  voting behavior

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Public Opinion and Religion

• Jewish Americans tend to be more liberal than
  Protestants or Catholics on a range of issues
  including civil liberties, social welfare, and
  abortion.
• Catholics tend to be more liberal on some issues
  than Protestants but the gap is smaller.

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Public Opinion and Religion

• Some of the recent research areas involving
  public opinion, politics, and religion involve
  subgroups drawn mainly from Protestants
• Research beginning in the 1980s was on the
  religious right
• Current hot research area involves evangelical
  Christians and/or those born again

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Influence of Religion on Opinions

• Pew Research Center for the People and the Press
  - 2001 Religion and Public Life Survey
• 2041 respondents

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Diversity of views among Protestants

• The Pew Survey shows clear differences in
  political views between white mainline
  Protestants and those who self-identify as
  evangelical or born again.
• White evangelical Protestants 47 Republicans,
  23 Democrats rest independents
• White mainline Protestants 34 Republicans 34
  Democrats rest independents

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Diversity of views among Protestants

• White evangelical Protestants backed Bush over
  Gore in 2000 by a margin of 68 to 30
• White mainline Protestants backed Bush over Gore
  53 to 43
• White evangelical Protestants backed Bush over
  Kerry 78 to 21 in 2004 (NEP Exit Poll)
• White mainline Protestants backed Bush over Kerry
  55 to 45 (NEP Exit Poll)

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Influence of Religion on Opinions

• Pew Survey asked Americans opinions on 7 public
  policy issues.
• It also asked respondents to identify the most
  important influence on that opinion.
• The choices were personal experience,
  friends/family, media, religious beliefs,
  education, or something else.
• 61 said their religious belief was the most
  important influence for at least 1 of the 7
  issues.
• Among those who report a high level of religious
  commitment, this percentage increases to 88

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Influence of Religion on Opinions

• 40 cited religion as the most important
  influence on their views about gay marriage
• This percentage increased to 65 among those who
  oppose gay marriage
• Among those who oppose physician assisted
  suicide, 59 cite religious views as most
  important
• 42 of those who oppose the death penalty cite
  religious views as most important
• This percentage increases to 62 for those who
  report a high level of religious commitment

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Race and ReligionBlack Protestant Churches

• This Side of Jordan Black Churches and Partisan
  Political Attitudes
• Allison Calhoun-Brown
• The focus on elections has meant relative
  neglect of the question of whether personal
  religiosity and attendance and participation in
  church also influence the attitudes of African
  Americans

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African American Protestants and Presidential
Elections

• In 2000 Black Protestants voted for Gore over
  Bush 91 to 7. (VNS Exit Poll)
• In 2004 Black Protestants voted for Kerry over
  Bush 86 to 13. (NEP Exit Poll)

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The Role of Black Churches

• Overwhelmingly evangelical
• Evangelicalism a consistently strong predictor of
  conservative positions on moral issues
• while attending black churches may lead to
  pro-Democratic political mobilization, it is not
  safe to assume that attending such churches is
  associated with the development of liberal
  opinions on all policy issues.

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The Role of Churches

• Calhoun-Browns study evaluates the assumption
  that African American church attendance boosts
  positive assessments of the Democratic Party,
  Democratic political figures, and Democrats
  ability to handle national political issues
• Uses the 1996 National Black Election Study
• Chief independent variables attendance of a
  political church and the frequency of church
  attendance

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The Role of Churches
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The Role of Churches
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The Role of Churches