Inequality & Social Policy Seminar: Efrén Pérez

Date: 

Monday, March 7, 2022, 12:00pm to 1:15pm

Taking Stock of Solidarity Between People of Color: A Meta-Analysis of 5 Experiments

Efrén Pérez, Professor of Political Science and Psychology, UCLA

Abstract: Recent work suggests that solidarity between people of color (PoC) is triggered when a minoritized ingroup believes they are discriminated similarly to another outgroup based on their alleged foreignness or inferiority. Heightened solidarity then boosts support for policies that benefit minoritized outgroups who are not one’s own. Available experiments on this pathway vary by participants (e.g., Asian, Black, and Latino adults), manipulations (discrimination as foreign vs. inferior), and pro-outgroup outcomes (support for undocumented immigrants, Black Lives Matter). We report a pre-registered meta-analysis of this “similar discrimination-to solidarity-to political opinion” mechanism. Across five experiments, sensed discrimination as foreign or inferior reliably triggers solidarity with PoC, which then substantially increases support for pro-outgroup policies. This mediated pathway is robust to possible confounding and emerges across studies and planned subsets of them. We discuss what the viability of this mechanism implies for further theoretic and empirical innovation in a racially diversifying polity.

Efr
én Pérez is Full Professor of Political Science and Psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he directs the Race, Ethnicity, Politics, and Society (REPS) Lab and co-directs the Intergroup Relations (IRL) Lab. His book, Unspoken Politics: Implicit Attitudes and Political Thinking (Cambridge University Press), was the recipient of the 2017 Best Book Award from the Race, Ethnicity, and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association; and the 2017 Best Book on Latino Politics from the Latino Caucus of the American Political Science Association. He received his Ph.D. from Duke University.

This seminar will take place virtually.