Did Obama’s Election Impact Racial Bias in Eyewitness Reporting Differently Based on Voting Behavior? The Differential Effect of Obama’s Election on Anti-Black Racial Bias in Eyewitness Reporting Between Counties that Voted for Obama and Those That Did Not
Abstract
We show that Obama’s election did not lead to differential changes in racial bias for counties where the majority of residents voted for Obama compared to those where the majority voted for another candidate. In addition, we find that voting for a candidate other than Obama is positively associated with racial bias. The latter result is supportive of the exemplar theory, which suggests that people who have a positive attitude towards Obama see him as a positive exemplar of a black person and generalise their positive attitudes towards Obama to black people as a whole. The former provides evidence against the Obama effect, as our results suggest that Obama’s election did not have an impact on the amount of anti-black racial bias in eyewitness reporting, irregardless of voting behaviour.