The Indirect Effects of Discredited Stereotypes: Social and Political Traits in Judgments of

Jewish Leaders

Adam J. Berinsky and

Tali Mendelberg

Department of Politics Princeton University

Princeton, NJ 08544-1012 (609) 258-4750

talim@princeton.edu

Abstract

We hypothesize that a stereotype can have an indirect impact over judgment even if some of its pieces are rejected. We test this proposition with a national survey-experiment that describes a hypothetical candidate either as Jewish, Jewish and shady, or neither Jewish nor shady. We find that once cued, a social stereotype trait (shady), even though it is rejected as illegitimate, can activate another, more acceptable political trait (liberal) that historically has been linked with shady. In turn, voters cued with the social trait give more weight to the acceptable political trait in evaluating the candidate, and the candidates support suffers, especially among conservative voters. This indirect influence of discredited stereotypes has implications for our understanding of the way stereotypes influence political judgments and for the ability of groups to overcome a legacy of discrimination. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Conference on Experimental Methods, Harvard University, May 11, 2001. The authors are listed in alphabetical order. We thank Stephen Ansolabehere, Larry Bartels, James Druckman, James Glaser, and Deborah Schildkraut for their thoughtful feedback, Paul Gerber for dedicated research assistance, Ed Freeland and the staff at the Princeton University Survey Research Center for conducting the study, and Princeton University for a research grant.

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The Indirect Effects of Discredited Stereotypes: Social and Political Traits in Judgments of Jewish Leaders

Introduction

Increasingly, research on voting has recognized the crucial role that stereotypes may play

in shaping how voters view and evaluate political candidates. Yet we know little about

differences in the nature and power of stereotypes. Some stereotypes are well known but

disreputable and widely rejected. For example, the notions that Jews are greedy, women are

incapable of governing, and African Americans are born with inferior intelligence were once the

norm but have since passed from the realm of acceptable social and political discourse. Other

stereotypes are equally well known but widely accepted. For example, it is widely assumed that

Jews, women and African Americans are liberal. In this paper we examine the effects of different

kinds of group stereotypes on voters judgments and evaluations of political candidates. In

particular, we ask whether stereotypes may have an indirect impact on political judgments

despite being widely rejected.

We focus here on the impact of political and social stereotypes about Jews in

contemporary American elections. The experience of Joseph Lieberman, the Democratic

candidate for Vice-President in 2000, suggests that stereotypes of Jews probably do not have a

direct effect on evaluations of candidates, but may have an indirect one. Lieberman was widely

identified by his own campaign and by the media as an observant Jew. While the coverage of

Liebermans candidacy was positive, the heavy attention to his Jewish identification, and anti-

Jewish references in other campaigns, prompt us to ask whether voters stereotypes of Jews may

present a liability for Jewish political leaders.

We begin with a general discussion of the nature and functions of stereotypes. We then

move to a specific discussion of the role played by stereotypes of Jews. At the heart of the paper,

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we describe an experiment, embedded in a national telephone survey, designed to test our

hypotheses. We find that direct cues to social stereotype traits are quite powerful despite the

illegitimacy of these traits. Voters respond to these cues indirectly, by giving more weight to

more acceptable, political stereotype traits in their judgments.

Stereotypes and Political Cognition

The term stereotype refers to a cognitive structure consisting of a category or label, and

its corresponding traits.1 These traits are linked together into a coherent structure that resides in

long-term memory and can become activated ready for use in subsequent judgments (Judd

and Downing 1995). People use stereotypes in general as heuristics or shortcuts to fill in

information they lack, to arrive at quick inferences and judgments, and to save the effort of

mindfulness (Lippman 1922). Stereotype traits may be correct or incorrect, but notably for our

purpose, even when largely correct, they are over-generalized, resistant to contrary evidence, and

may be applied in error (Allport 1954; Lippman 1922; Nelson, Acker and Manis 1996).

Stereotypes of groups, however, may have something more: an affective charge (Hurwitz

and Peffley 1998, 91; Jussim et al 1995). Often group stereotypes contain cultural baggage

the traces of a history of group inequality and denigration (Allport 1954; Operario and Fiske

1998: 34-35). As a consequence, negative traits continue to reside in peoples stereotype of the

group even after it achieves a significant measure of equality. Though individuals consciously

reject its validity, the stereotype may be activated nevertheless, and used in subsequent

judgments, often without intent or awareness (Banaji and Greenwald 1994; Bargh 1996; Devine

1989; Fiske 1998; Macrae, Milne and Bodenhausen 1994; Mendelberg 2001). People can of

course control the activation of stereotypes they reject, if they are motivated to do so and their

cognitive resources are not taxed (Devine and Vasquez 1998; Fiske and Neuberg 1990; Monteith

1 Other definitions include expectancies and knowledge (Hamilton and Trolier 1986: 133).

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1993). But overriding automatically activated stereotypes is an arduous task, especially where

stereotypes of social groups are concerned (Nelson, Acker and Manis 1996; Operario and Fiske

1998).

A key feature of group stereotypes is that they are rich cognitive structures whose various

traits are linked in interconnected associative network structures (Anderson 1985; Lodge and

Stroh 1993). Once a particular stereotype trait is activated, or brought to working memory, the

other pieces of the stereotype may become available through a process of spreading activation

across the stereotypes associative network. Thus, it is possible that once a disavowed trait has

been activated, it may activate another, more acceptable trait. Consequently, voters may rely on a

more legitimate component of the stereotype even if they avoid relying on a less legitimate one.

The result may be erroneous and inequitable decision-making about political figures.

Social and Political Stereotype Traits

We are especially interested in two components of stereotypes about groups: social and

political traits (see also Huddy 1998). Social traits describe social characteristics of groups in an

exaggerated or over-generalized manner. Many of these social stereotype traits are now

considered at the conscious level to be violations of the modern norm that groups should be

treated equally in a democracy (Mendelberg 2001). Nevertheless, the impact on social and

political judgments of stereotypes about African Americans and women, which contain traits

such as violent or feminine respectively, is well documented (Gilens 1999; Gilliam and

Iyengar 2000; Huddy and Terkildsen 1993; Kahn 1994; Kinder and Mendelberg 1995;

Mendelberg 2001; Hurwitz and Peffley 1998; Sigelman et al 1995; Sniderman and Piazza 1993).

Political stereotype traits, by contrast, are often consciously considered an accurate

representation of the way groups behave in politics. For that reason, they are seen as legitimate

beliefs. Political stereotype traits may refer to the overall liberal or conservative orientation of a

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group, or to more specific characteristics such as feminist (Huddy 1998). Research in political

science has often focused on the impact of political stereotypes of political groups, such as the

Democratic and Republican parties (Lau 1989; Lodge, McGraw and Stroh 1989; Rahn 1993).

But recent scholarship suggests that voters link political and social traits in evaluating members

of social groups active in politics (e.g., using the trait feminine to evaluate a feminist woman

activist) (Huddy 1998).

While social and political traits are distinct, they are linked in peoples minds through the

cognitive structure of the group stereotype. The social and political traits may not be related

logically. Nevertheless, the two are likely to be associated and linked with the groups name in

the cognitive structure of the stereotype. When a social trait is activated by a political campaign,

a political trait may as well, through its link in the group stereotype.

Voters are likely to view political traits as more legitimate political considerations than

social traits. Thus, while most voters reject social stereotype traits as illegitimate, they are likely

to use political stereotype traits. If an illegitimate social trait is activated it may not receive added

weight in voters considerations because it will be consciously rejected by the individual. But

and here is the key voters may give added weight to the more legitimate political trait, even if it

does not apply, because the overall structure of the group stereotype has been activated.

Social and Political Stereotypes of Jews

In this paper we explore the political power of stereotypes by examining reactions to a

hypothetical Jewish politician. As for many social groups, the stereotype of Jews can be divided

into social and political components. In the U.S., the social traits of Jews as greedy and cunning

have very old roots and are well known, but they have been widely repudiated as illegitimate.

The political stereotype trait of Jews as liberals, however, is widely believed and relatively more

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socially acceptable.2 If a social trait is cued during a campaign, it may not harm a Jewish

candidates support directly, but it may do so indirectly by activating the legitimate trait of Jews

as too liberal. After all, while their contents may be unrelated, the political and social traits,

together with the category label Jew, are likely to be linked together in the memory of many

voters. The stereotype of Jews thus might carry a political penalty for Jewish candidates, given

that many voters reject liberal leaders.

The Content of Social Stereotypes of Jews

The social stereotype of Jews has a centuries-old history in the U.S. (Dinnerstein 1994;

Higham 1955). According to several surveys conducted since the 1960s, it contains such traits as

clannish, cunning, and greedy (Martire and Clark 1982; Quinley and Glock 1979;

Selznick and Steinberg 1969). While levels of anti-Semitism have declined dramatically over the

past several decades, the exact nature and magnitude of the decline is uncertain (Smith 1993).

But the key for our study is that these social stereotypes of Jews are sufficiently known,

even if they are rejected by a large majority of voters. While it is rare that such stereotypes come

directly into play in electoral politics, there are indications that they still exist in regular political

discourse. On the national level, Patrick Buchanan has made stereotypical references to Jews on

the social dimension, which have been widely condemned (Chanes 1995, 15; Foltin 1997, 142;

Foltin 2000, 151-152; Wertheimer 1995, 52). On a local level we have only suggestive

anecdotes. For example, a recent influx of observant Jews into the small Iowa town of Postville

provoked a petition signed by 126 voters (in a town of 1,600 residents) to oppose the first Jew

appointed to the town council and force him to run in a special election. In a newspaper

interview, the mayor, who opposed the appointment, explained the opposition in classic social-

stereotypic terms: The Jewish people are not guilt- free on this. And its not totally about

2 In our study, when asked whether the statement Jews are liberal politically describes Jews, a minority (43%)

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religion. The typical Jewish person is going to bargain. The typical Jewish person will delay

payment. Thats not the Postville way either. 3

The Content of Political Stereotypes of Jews

Though social stereotypes of Jews are discredited, political stereotypes are less so in part

because they appear accurate. Since the beginning of their large-scale involvement in electoral

politics during the 1930s, Jewish citizens and leaders have taken consistently liberal positions on

various issues. Today they continue to be unusually liberal on the separation between church and

state, social issues relating to sexuality, spending fo r social programs, civil rights and

government aid to African Americans (Cohen and Liebman 1997; Glaser 1997). Throughout the

1980s, 40% to 50% of Jews identified as liberal, a rate two to three times higher than that of

Catholics or Protestants (Sigelman 1991).4

The belief that Jews are liberal is accurate. But if it functions as a component of voters

overall stereotype of Jews, it might not be used accurately and judiciously in all cases.

Lieberman, for example, has taken moderate and even some conservative positions on a number

of policies. As the New York Times reported after the 2000 Democratic Convention, behind the

traditional Democratic oratory of his convention speech is a senator who has described himself

as pro-business, pro-trade and pro-economic growth" (New York Times 8/27/00). As a Senator,

Lieberman actively promoted the interests of the insurance, high technology and health care

indicated not too well or not well at all. 3In Iowa, Strangers Become Neighbors, by Richard Meryhew, 2/19/01, Star Tribune, p. A1. Other examples from the past include media references in the late 1960s to Sam Massell, the first Jew to be elected mayor of Atlanta, as the Jewish liberal from the synagogue district (quoted in Dinnerstein and Palsson 1973: 19). In New Jersey in the late 1960s two Jewish candidates for school board were criticized by an incumbent board member: most Jewish people are liberals, especially when it comes to spending for education. . . two more votes and we lose what is left of Christ in our Christmas celebrations and in our schools. Think of it (quoted in Quinley and Glock 1979, 178). These remarks were censured by the school board and the local council, but the two Jewish candidates, who had been favored to win, were defeated by a large margin (Quinley and Glock 1979, 178-179). Some prominent political figures of the 1970s made anti-Semitic references, perhaps most notably Richard Nixon, who referred to kikes and left-wing Jews, and believed a Jewish cabal in the Bureau of Labor statistics worked against him (quoted in Dinnerstein 1994, 232). However, Jaher notes, no major American politicians openly courted an anti-Semitic vote (1994, 243).

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industries. He has also made a national name advocating traditional morality in popular culture

and criticizing President Clintons extra-marital affairs. His overall record is much more

accurately classified as moderate than liberal. If the stereotype of Jews has potency, however,

people may judge a candidate like Lieberman as more liberal than he really is.

More generally, the political trait liberal, if it functions as part of a stereotype of Jews

that exaggerates and oversimplifies reality, may lead to perceptions of Jewish leaders as liberal,

even when their actual positions indicate that they are not. A leader whose Jewish membership is

emphasized may be perceived as much more liberal than he is in fact. Since many voters do not

identify as liberal, being perceived as a liberal is likely to carry a political liability for leaders.

In sum, while most voters may reject a message that plays on the stereotypic social traits

of Jews, that message may nevertheless prompt some voters to give greater weight to their

stereotypic political trait of Jews as too liberal even if the message makes no allusion to the

political trait. Negative, discredited social traits may not be used in evaluations of the candidate

because they are deemed an unacceptable basis for judgment. However, the activation of an

illegitimate social trait may in turn activate the more acceptable political trait. The candidate may

lose support from the latter even as he escapes a penalty from the former.

Method

In our study, we seek to gauge the effects of stereotypes of Jews on perceptions of

political leaders. For this purpose, we asked respondents to evaluate a fictitious candidate,

Howard Wilson. 5 Respondents to a national phone survey were randomly read one of six short

profiles of Wilson (see the Appendix for the exact wording).6

4Also, during the past several decades Jews have been significantly more loyal to the Democratic party than Catholics or Protestants (Abramson, Aldrich and Rhode 1998, 110). 5 Respondents, of course, were not told that Wilson was not a real politician. 6Note that the three variables are not fully crossed with each other. The survey was conducted by the Survey Research Center at Princeton University. The survey was fielded from early February to April 2001 using random-digit dialing and a national voting-age sample. The sample characteristics are displayed in the Appendix.

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The profiles were identical across the six conditions except for the words that related to

the stereotypical dimensions of Jews (see Table 1). 7 The first dimension concerned the social

stereotypes of Jews. In the control condition (no-label) Wilson had no religious or ethnic

affiliation and was reported to be facing a lawsuit filed against him by a business client who

accuses Wilson of neglecting and ignoring his business practices. In the label-only condition,

Wilson was identified as Jewish (among a list of other, neutral characteristics), and was

reported to be facing the same lawsuit by a business client over neglecting and ignoring his

business practices. In the social stereotype condition, Wilson was identified as Jewish (in the

same way as in the label-only condition) but was also reported to be facing a lawsuit filed by

a business competitor who accuses Wilson of engaging in shady business practices to get

ahead.

(Table 1 Here)

This three-treatment social stereotype dimension was crossed with a two-treatment

manipulation concerning political stereotypes of Jews. One-half of the respondents were given a

somewhat liberal issue profile of Wilson. Specifically, they were told Wilson has voted to raise

spending on assistance to the poor, to increase government involvement in health care and for a

tax relief plan for middle-class families. The remaining respondents were given a somewhat

conservative issue profile: Wilson has voted to reduce spending on assistance to the poor, to

decrease government involvement in health care and for a tax relief plan for middle-class

families.

These six conditions effectively manipulate three variables. First, they provide or

withhold the Jewish label. Specifically, two-thirds of the respondents were told that Wilson is

Jewish; the other third were given no information concerning Wilsons religious practices.

7A randomization check is provided in the Appendix.

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Second, the conditions either introduced or withheld a cue relating to the social stereotype of

Jews as a group that practices shady business dealings in order to make more money.

Specifically, one-half of the respondents who were told that Wilson is Jewish (one-third of all

respondents) were also told that he is accused of being shady.8 Third, we either cued or

countered the political stereotype of Jews as liberal. In particular, one half of respondents was

given information indicating that he is; the other half was given information indicating that he is

a conservative.

Before we proceed, it is important to address a potential criticism. We did not construct a

condition that cued the social stereotype without the Jewish label. We are highly skeptical that

such a condition would, in fact, measure the impact of the stereotypical dimension (greed and

dishonest business practices) independent of the Jewish identity of the candidate. A person of

unidentified ethnicity who is accused of using shady business practices to advance his business at

the expense of competitors may well be perceived as a Jew. We could of course proceed with

such a condition and simply ask respondents whether they perceived the politician as a Jew,

Catholic, Protestant, or something else. But this question probably underestimates respondents

true perception of the candidates Jewish ethnicity. Instead, we have chosen to forego a no- label,

social stereotype condition and rely on a pattern of evidence to test the link between the social

stereotype and political perception (see An Alternative Hypothesis below).

After hearing one of the six candidate profiles, respondents were asked to evaluate

Wilson in general and to place him on a number of specific political attitude and trait scales.9 For

comparison purposes they were also asked to place themselves and several real political figures

on some of these scales (including Joseph Lieberman). At the end of the questionnaire we also

8It is important to note here that we hold the presence of a potential scandal constant across conditions and vary the type of scandal. 9All items have been used in major data collection efforts.

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measured whether the respondent accepts or rejects various stereotypes of Jews (using

established questions developed for this purpose and extensively tested on national samples).

Results

Our main expectation is that the mere invocation of the Jewish label will activate the

stereotypic political traits attached to the stereotype of Jews. Moreover, we expect that the

invocation of the social stereotypic traits will increase the activation of the overall Jewish

stereotype, political traits included, even if the respondent consciously rejects that stereotype.

Therefore, we expect that 1) the description of the Jewish candidate that cues the stereotype will

not cause people to judge the candidate in more socially stereotypic terms, but 2) will cause them

to judge the candidate in more politically stereotypic terms. Specifically, our hypothesis is that

Wilson will be perceived as more liberal in the Jewish label profile than in the no- label

condition and more liberal still in the shady Jewish label condition. If the link between the

social and political stereotypes is sufficiently strong, then we will see this stereotype activation

even in the profile that counters the political stereotype with information that the candidate is, in

fact, politically conservative. Real political ramifications may follow. If people perceive a

socially stereotyped candidate as more politically stereotypical (that is, as more liberal), the

candidates support may suffer among the majority of voters, who are moderate or conservative.

The Absence of an Overt Stereotyping Effect

As a first step, we ask whether the Jewish label, with or without the social stereotype,

leads voters to think in more socially stereotypical terms about the candidates.10 We expect it

will not. We regressed the perception of the candidate as greedy and the perception of him as

dishonest (coded on the 0-1 interval) on a dummy variable for the Label-only condition and

another dummy variable for the shady condition (see Appendix for wording). Neither the

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Jewish label nor the label with the stereotype cue lead people to judge Wilson as either more

dishonest or more greedy. 11 In all cases, the coefficients are insignificant in both a statistical and

a substantive sense. Thus, as expected, the experimental treatments do not affect respondents

willingness to ascribe socially stereotypic traits to Wilson.

(Table 2 Here)

Evidence for Indirect Stereotype Effects on Perceptions of Candidate Ideology

More crucially, however, we expect these ethnic cues to have important political

consequences through the more indirect judgment of the candidates political ideology. Our

second step therefore is to test the hypothesis that cuing the Jewish stereotypes through the

label only and the shady conditions will activate the political stereotypic trait of liberal.12

Table 2 presents the means and standard errors in each of the six conditions. Regardless of

whether Wilson is portrayed as liberal or conservative, cuing the Jewish stereotype increases his

perceived liberalism. Merely identifying Wilson as Jewish pushes the respondents impression of

the candidate toward the liberal end of the seven-point scale. Adding the shady trait pushes

Wilson leftward still. Voters, it seems, are indeed quite ready to rely on the political stereotypic

trait even when provided clear, direct information about the candidates ideology through his

issue positions.13

10All the analyses performed in this paper were conducted using only respondents who did not identify themselves as Jewish. Including the 15 Jews in the analyses does not change the results. 11 The OLS coefficients, with standard errors in parenthesis, are as follows: GreedyCandidate = .40 + .02 (.03) Label-Only + .03 (.03) Shady; n = 599, adjusted R-squared = -.002. DishonestCandidate = .40 + .001 (.03) Label-Only - .01 (.03) Shady; n = 623, adjusted R-squared = -.003. 12The analyses used here make use of a seven-point branching liberal-conservative scale, where 7 is the most liberal response, and 1 is the most conservative response. We get the same results if we use only the first branch of the question, and when we use ordered probit instead of OLS. By way of calibrating the results, the ideology ratings of Joe Lieberman and Dick Cheney are 4.97 and 2.52, respectively. 13 The impact of the shady condition is equivalent to the impact of moving from a moderately conservative to a moderately liberal candidate profile in the control conditions. However, we do not wish to over-emphasize the comparison between the impact of candidate ideology and candidate social trait: by design we avoided extreme variance in the manipulation of candidate ideology, making it rather moderate in all conditions, in order to generalize to most contests. We also note that the fact that candidate ideology has an impact suggests that our ideology manipulation worked well voters saw a statistically significant but moderate difference between two moderately different ideological profiles.

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Recall that we also manipulated the political stereotype trait we activated it with a

liberal issue profile or countered it with a conservative set of issues. The question now is whether

candidate information that counters the political stereotype trait moderates the impact of the

social trait. If social stereotype traits have limited power, then when we tell voters that the

candidate holds conservative issue positions, the impact of the social trait should diminish. To

find out, we regressed perception of the candidates ideology on a pair of dummy variables

representing the Label-only and shady conditions, separately for the liberal and conservative

candidate profiles. The results are displayed in Table 3.

(Table 3 Here)

Table 3 shows that where perception of ideological position is concerned, a conservative

candidate is no less susceptible than a liberal candidate to the effects of social stereotyping. A

liberal candidate is perceived as somewhat more liberal merely for being labeled a Jew, and as

slightly more liberal still if he is portrayed as a shady Jew (the effects are in the right direction

but are not statistically significant from the control candidate). Among the conservative

candidates, the Jewish and shady Jewish candidates are each perceived as substantially more

liberal than their counterpart in the control condition (Table 3 shows that each is statistically

significant relative to the control candidate; the difference between them is not statistically

significant). A counter-stereotypical, conservative description clearly fails to counter the effect

of the shady social stereotype trait, and may smooth the way for stereotype activation (though

the last column in Table 3 shows that the differences between the effects on the liberal and

conservative Jewish candidates are not statistically significant).14

14 The effects in Table 3 obtain among both liberal and conservative respondents.

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An Alternative Hypothesis: Perhaps They are Shady if They are Liberal, Jewish or Not

However, perhaps what we would interpret as the effect of activating the stereotype on

perceptions of ideology is a spurious effect. People may not associate the Jewish label and its

stereotypical social traits with liberal ideology, as we hypothesize. Rather, our respondents may

instead associate liberals (of all ethnic backgrounds) with dishonesty or greed. Perhaps if we had

asked our respondents about a Protestant shady candidate, they would have rated him as liberal

too. In that case, it is not the stereotypic link between social and political traits that causes the

increase in perception of liberal ideology; it is the independent association between liberal

ideology and shadiness, ethnicity aside.

To assess the validity of this alternative hypothesis, we compared peoples perception of

the candidates greed and dishonesty in the liberal and the conservative control conditions (see

Appendix for wording). If people associate liberal positions with greed or dishonesty without

consulting their stereotype of Jews, then perceptions of the candidates greed and dishonesty

should be higher in the liberal than the conservative conditions that do not refer to Jews.

The results suggest otherwise. With perceptions coded on the 0 to 1 interval, the

unstandardized OLS estimate on a dummy variable coded 1 for the liberal control condition and

0 for the conservative control condition is -.05 for greedy, with a standard error of .04. The

results for the dishonest item are even clearer; there, the coefficient on the dummy variable is

.003, with a standard error of .04. The liberal non-Jewish Wilson is perceived to be no more

greedy or dishonest than the conservative non-Jewish Wilson. There is no evidence for the

alternative hypothesis that voters associate a candidates greed and dishonesty with liberal

ideology, his ethnic membership notwithstanding. Thus it seems that the causal story

emphasizing the link between social and political traits specific to stereotypes of Jews is correct.

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The Impact of Candidates Perceived Liberal Ideology on Candidate Evaluation

More important than movement in perception of liberal ideology is whether candidates

incur a political penalty from stereotypes. If the stereotype is in fact affectively charged,

activating it should lead to a negative judgment, not merely to a biased perception of ideology.

Does the Jewish candidate lose support through his perceived ideology because he is Jewish?

And if so, is it merely because of his Jewish identity, or only when he is also attacked as a

socially stereotypic Jew? Finally, does the candidates actual conservative position moderate the

impact of the social stereotypic cue?

To find out, we regressed the feeling thermometer for the candidate on perception of the

candidates ideology in each of the six conditions.15 The common sense of party politics suggests

that the penalty paid by the Jewish candidate applies primarily among people who do not identify

themselves as liberal. After all, for liberal voters, the candidates liberal ideology would not be a

liability (and might be an asset). Not so for conservative voters, for whom the candidates

perceived liberal ideology should constitute grounds for rejection. To find out whether

conservative and liberal voters react in these opposite ways, we estimated the model separately

for liberal and conservative voters.

(Table 4 Here)

(Table 5 Here)

The OLS coefficients and standard errors are presented in Table 4, and the corresponding

estimated means in Table 5. Recall that many voters tend to misperceive the socially stereotyped

candidate in more politically stereotyped terms. The results in Tables 4 and 5 suggest that

conservative voters go the next step and give more weight to their exaggerated perception. Table

4 shows that in comparison with the control and label-only conditions, the shady trait leads

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conservative voters to give much more weight to their perception of the candidates ideology.

This holds for the liberal candidate (b = -4.78, se=1.42; difference from label-only is

significant at p < .05) and especially for the conservative candidate (-6.94, se=1.41; differences

from label-only and from control are each significant at p < .05). It is the cue to the social

stereotype trait of shady, and not the mere Jewish label, that sets indirect stereotyping in

motion. The candidates actual conservative positions do little to inhibit indirect stereotyping

(Table 4 shows that there is no statistically significant difference between the liberal and

conservative candidates). Table 5 makes clear what these effects mean: the shady Jewish

candidates support among conservative voters drops substantially when he is perceived as

liberal. A shady candidate who manages to avoid the perception that he is liberal essentially

inhibits the process of indirect stereotyping and suffers few ill effects.

Liberal voters evaluations grow colder with the social stereotype too, though in a

different way. Tables 4 and 5 show that when the conservative candidate is not Jewish, his

perceived liberalism is a reason to support him (b = 4.98, se = 1.91). But when he is a shady

Jew, his perceived liberalism ceases to be a plus and may become a reason to oppose him (the

coefficient takes a negative sign though it is not statistically significant, b = -1.77, se = 1.68). His

evaluations plummet from 61 (for a non-Jew) to 34 (for a shady Jew). Again, the mere Jewish

label carries no statistically significant ill effects relative to the control condition; only the

shady trait does so. By contrast with the conservative candidate, the liberal candidate suffers

no ill effects from the social stereotype (Table 4 shows that the difference between the

conservative and liberal shady candidates is statistically significant). Thus, if a socially

stereotyped liberal candidate were to try to shift his actual policy positions in a more

15 The model includes six dummy variables representing the six conditions, and six variables representing the perceptions of candidate ideology multiplied by each dummy variable. We estimated the model without a constant, for ease of interpretation.

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conservative direction (and came to resemble the conservative candidate in our study), he would

risk losing support among liberal voters. 16

Let us summarize these results.17 We found evidence for the indirect effect of a social

stereotype cue. Conservatives not only see the shady Jewish candidate as more liberal than his

non-Jewish counterpart, but also find the candidates liberal ideology much more objectionable.

The mere label does not carry ill effects; the candidate suffers a more severe penalty for his

misperceived issue positions only if he is identified as a socially stereotypic group member.

Notably, the socially stereotyped candidate only suffers the loss of support indirectly, through a

stereotyped perceived ideology. The process of stereotyping is indirect: the social trait (shady)

activates a stereotyped political trait (liberal), which in turn decreases support. Without the

perceived political trait, the social cue does nothing to erode the candidates support. Also

notable is the inability of the candidate who takes actual conservative positions to escape the

consequences of indirect stereotyping. Finally, we found that liberal voters also respond to the

social stereotype cue, but only in evaluating a conservative candidate. Indirect stereotyping

works most consistently among conservative voters.

Conclusion

In this paper we have attempted to gauge whether negative stereotypes of a social group

may work in a subtle yet potent fashion. We focused on stereotypes of Jews as a difficult test of

this hypothesis. Surveys have shown consistently that negative stereotypes of Jews have declined

dramatically in the United States. Yet the results here suggest that when campaigns cue

16Validating the intuition that liberals prefer someone they perceive as liberal while conservatives prefer the converse, the effects in the control conditions show that the impact of the candidates perceived liberal ideology is negative among conservatives, and positive among liberals. But this effect does not hold among liberal voters evaluating the liberal candidate. That makes for a problematic comparison with the effects on liberals who are evaluating a liberal Jewish or shady candidate. 17 By way of calibrating the effects, one might contrast them with the impact of Liebermans and Cheneys perceived ideology on their respective feeling thermometer ratings (-3.09, se = .56, and 1.33, se = .70 respectively). We get the same results when we recode the feeling thermometer to three categories (positive, 51-100; neutral, 50; negative, 0-49), and stronger results when we focus on voters who gave feeling thermometer ratings other than 50.

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stereotypic social traits even those widely discredited we may witness an indirect process of

stereotyping by which Jewish candidates ultimately lose significant political support.

This process, we believe, is fundamentally both cognitive and affective. It is cognitive in

the sense that stereotypic social and political traits are linked together within a cognitive

structure that resides in memory. The discredited social traits are activated but controlled, while

the political, more legitimate political trait is activated but not over-ridden. Because the social is

linked to the political, it can carry an important indirect consequence for political judgments.

The process of stereotyping, however, is not only cognitive but also affective. Some of

the social stereotype traits of social groups with a history of disadvantage are negative. We found

that only when a negative social trait is cued does the target of the stereotype suffer adverse

consequences; the group label by itself causes no harm.

Whether our findings apply to Liebermans candidacy is uncertain. Liebermans

candidacy does not fit our label-only simulation, since his campaign and press coverage

highlighted not only the Jewish label but also the socially stereotypic trait of religiosity. Neither

does his candidacy clearly fit our social trait condition. The trait of religiosity, while social, is

much more positive than the social trait shady. Lieberman was portrayed as a deeply religious

man with the associated positive characteristics of moral integrity and attachment to the valued

institutions of family and place of worship. There was a small exception, however, that hints at

the kind of campaign we simulated here. For a brief time, Lieberman was cast by the Republican

National Committee as Slumlord Joe for his role in evicting a tenant from a building he

administered for his rich uncles estate.18 Talk radio host Rush Limbaugh charged him with

18 The Hartford Courant, 9/14/2000, Records Refute GOP Hypocrite Claim, by Mike McIntire.

18

hypocrisy in social stereotypic terms (can you spell chutzpah, Joe?!).19 Still, this episode was

sufficiently brief and marginal that it probably had little impact.

What we can say with some confidence is that absent positive information about a Jewish

candidate, intensive attention to a candidates Jewish ethnicity is likely to pose a liability with an

electorate composed of more than trivial numbers of conservative voters. Moreover, if a Jewish

candidate were to run against a candidate in the mold of Patrick Buchanan (who has made

consistent statements unfavorable to Jews), or in an environment rife with tensions between Jews

and others (as in the Iowa town of Postville, or at certain moments in New York City), the

candidate may find himself characterized in negative stereotypical terms. It may not be the

opposing candidate who does so; cues might present themselves in the course of casual exchange

among ordinary political discussion partners, on talk radio, or in internet forums. Regardless of

their source, if such cues are available, anti-Jewish stereotypes may well become activated. The

consequence will likely be the erosion of the Jewish candidates support.

Notably, however, the process by which Jewish candidates support can erode is an

indirect one, and thus potentially difficult to counter. Voters do not rely on social stereotypic

reasons for opposing a stereotyped candidate. In our study, voters did not reject the candidate

because he was a dishonest or greedy person. Rather, voters rely on their misperceived reading

of the candidates ideology. The cue to the negative social trait sets in motion a process by which

the candidate is perceived as more liberal, and in turn judged more harshly for it.

But the temptation that this presents for candidates to inoculate themselves by moving

rightward is probably a false one. Most likely, a candidates attempt to present a moderately

conservative policy profile will fail, and may even backfire. The results presented here suggest

that moderately conservative candidates can no more escape the effects of stereotyping than can

19http://www.rushonline.com/visitors/goreism.htm

19

moderately liberal candidates. Thus the strategy that may seem most sensible is unlikely to

succeed.

A strategy that these results can recommend takes as its point of departure the indirect

nature of the stereotype process. If voters come to understand that their response derives from

stereotypical social traits that they reject, they may be more motivated to override the stereotype.

The literature on stereotypes provides some hope in this regard. When people are motivated to

interfere with the activation of their own stereotypes, they can often weaken the impact of their

stereotypes on their judgments, if not completely eradicate it (e.g., Bodenhausen and Macrae

1998; Devine 1989; for a somewhat more pessimistic conclusion, see Nelson, Acker and Manis

1996).

Today, members of social groups with a history of disadvantage are protected from harm

by virtue of their citizenship in a democracy. But those among them who seek to join the

governing class may, under specific circumstances, continue to face obstacles rooted in social

suspicion. The key to the remedy is to understand those circumstances and to investigate the

ways in which they might be neutralized.

20

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Appendix I: Candidate Profiles

Now we are going to ask you some questions to see how voters such as yourself view candidates for public office. I'm go ing to read you a description of a politician. Please listen and remember what you can from the description. Profile 1. Howard Wilson is a state representative who is considering running for an open seat in Congress. Wilson is a 48 year-old businessman who is married with two children. He has served in the state Senate for two terms. While in the Senate, Wilson has voted to raise spending on assistance to the poor, to increase government involvement in health care and for a tax relief plan for middle-class families. As a state senator he worked to expand his state's economic ties with several countries overseas. One potential problem for Wilson is a lawsuit filed against him by a business client who accuses Wilson of neglecting and ignoring his business practices, causing the client to lose a great deal of money. Wilson has denied the charge. Profile 2. Howard Wilson is a state representative who is considering running for an open seat in Congress. Wilson is a 48 year-old Jewish businessman who is married with two children. He has served in the state Senate for two terms. While in the Senate, Wilson has voted to raise spending on assistance to the poor, to increase government involvement in health care and for a tax relief plan for middle-class families. As a state senator he worked to expand his state's economic ties with several countries overseas. One potential problem for Wilson is a lawsuit filed against him by a business client who accuses Wilson of neglecting and ignoring his business practices, causing the client to lose a great deal of money. Wilson has denied the charge. Profile 3. Howard Wilson is a state representative who is considering running for an open seat in Congress. Wilson is a 48 year-old Jewish businessman who is married with two children. He has served in the state Senate for two terms. While in the Senate, Wilson has voted to raise spending on assistance to the poor, to increase government involvement in health care and for a tax relief plan for middle-class families. As a state senator he worked to expand his state's economic ties with several countries overseas. One potential problem for Wilson is a lawsuit filed against him by a business competitor who accuses Wilson of engaging in shady business practices to get ahead, causing the competitor to lose a great deal of money. Wilson has denied the charge. Profile 4. Howard Wilson is a state representative who is considering running for an open seat in Congress. Wilson is a 48 year-old businessman who is married with two children. He has served in the state Senate for two terms. While in the Senate, Wilson has voted to reduce spending on assistance to the poor, to decrease government involvement in health care and for a tax relief plan for middle-class families. As a state senator he worked to expand his state's economic ties with several countries overseas. One potential problem for Wilson is a lawsuit filed against him by a business client who accuses Wilson of neglecting and ignoring his business practices, causing the client to lose a great deal of money. Wilson has denied the charge.

25

Profile 5. Howard Wilson is a state representative who is considering running for an open seat in Congress. Wilson is a 48 year-old Jewish businessman who is married with two children. He has served in the state Senate for two terms. While in the Senate, Wilson has voted to reduce spending on assistance to the poor, to decrease government involvement in health care and for a tax relief plan for middle-class families. As a state senator he worked to expand his state's economic ties with several countries overseas. One potential problem for Wilson is a lawsuit filed against him by a business client who accuses Wilson of neglecting and ignoring his business practices, causing the client to lose a great deal of money. Wilson has denied the charge. Profile 6. Howard Wilson is a state representative who is considering running for an open seat in Congress. Wilson is a 48 year-old Jewish businessman who is married with two children. He has served in the state Senate for two terms. While in the Senate, Wilson has voted to reduce spending on assistance to the poor, to decrease government involvement in health care and for a tax relief plan for middle-class families. As a state senator he worked to expand his state's economic ties with several countries overseas. One potential problem for Wilson is a lawsuit filed against him by a business competitor who accuses Wilson of engaging in shady business practices to get ahead, causing the competitor to lose a great deal of money. Wilson has denied the charge. [Note: Respondent is randomly assigned to one profile only.]

26

Appendix II: Sample Characteristics, Variables and Randomization Checks

Total N = 756. AAPORs RR 3 response rate is 16%.

20 The 2000 NES, unlike our study, provided an option of havent thought about it much. Most likely, those who selected this answer chose moderate or dont know in our study.

Comparison of Stereotype Study and 2000 NES

Variable Stereotype Study 2000 NES

Party identification Republican 31.5 25.0 Democrat 28.7 34.3 Independent 34.4 27.4 Other/dont know/no response 5.4 13.3

Ideological self-placement Conservative 53.1 52.3 Liberal 41.6 34.9 Moderate/other/dont know20 5.3 12.8

Preference on government spending (1 = reduce, 7 = increase) 4.5 4.3 Age (mean) 45.1 47.0 Education

Some high school or less 7.0 10.0 High school diploma 23.8 28.8 Some college or 2-year degree 28.0 30.3 4-year or more advanced degree 41.2 30.9

Race White 79.6 86.0 Black/African-American 7.8 13.7 Asian/Pacific Islander 1.5 0.0 American Indian/Native American 1.1 0.0 Other/dont know/no response 10.0 0.3

Hispanic Yes 6.9 8.3 No 91.8 85.8 Other/dont know/no response 1.1 5.9

Household income Up to $15,000 8.1 13.3 $15,000 - $24,999 10.2 10.0 $25,000 - $34,999 11.3 11.5 $35,000 - $49,999 17.2 13.7 $50,000 - $74,999 20.6 18.6 $75,000 - $99,999 11.4 7.8 $100,000 or more 9.8 9.9 Dont know 2.0 4.1 Refusal 9.4 8.5

27

Continued.

Religious affiliation Protestant 39.4 35.2 Roman Catholic 23.7 23.3 Jewish 2.9 1.8 Other religion 16.5 19.6 No religion 16.1 19.621 Refusal/dont know 1.3 0.4

Religion, important to respondent Extremely 35.2 38.0 Very 27.0 21.9 Somewhat 23.8 16.2 Not too 12.3 23.6 Dont know 0.9 0.1 Refusal 0.8 0.2

Female 56.0 56.3 Politically informed

Blair 45.0 33.9 Rehnquist 36.1 9.6 Majority in the House 62.2 54.6

Other Variables Used in Analysis

Note: 7 is the most liberal response, and 1 is the most conservative response

Note: Candidate evaluation is a 100-point feeling thermometer

21 The NES asked whether the respondent had an affiliation at all first, then followed up with which affiliation. Our questionnaire, by comparison, provided the no affiliation option in the same question as which affiliation.

Howard Wilsons Perceived Ideology Conservative Liberal Scale 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Percentage of Respondents 9.3 19.1 19.4 3.4 18.8 21.0 9.0

Feeling Thermometer for Howard Wilson

Thermometer Ratings

0-24 25-49 50 51-74 75-100

Percentage of Respondents 15.2 23.9 40.7 13.6 6.6

28

Randomization Check The number of subjects is randomly distributed across conditions, with cell size ranging from 122 to 130. Every relevant variable is randomly distributed across conditions with the exception of education. When we included education in our basic models the results were substantially the same as those we report in the text.

Appendix III: Question Wording and Responses

1. I am going to read a list of words and phrases people may use to describe Howard Wilson. For each, tell me whether the word or phrase describes him extremely well, quite well, not too well, or not well at all. What about DISHONEST?

2. We hear a lot of talk these days about liberals and conservatives. When it comes to

politics, do you usually think of yourself as liberal, moderate or middle of the road or conservative? (IF LIBERAL) Would you say that you are extremely liberal or just somewhat liberal? (IF CONSERVATIVE) Would you say that you are extremely conservative or just somewhat conservative? (IF MODERATE) If you had to choose, would you say that you are a liberal or a conservative?

3. What about Howard Wilson? Do you think he is liberal, moderate or middle of the road,

or conservative? (IF LIBERAL) Would you say that he is extremely liberal or just somewhat liberal? (IF CONSERVATIVE) Would you say that he is extremely conservative or just somewhat conservative? (IF MODERATE) If you had to choose, would you say that he is a liberal or a conservative?

4. Now I'd like to get your feelings toward some of our political leaders and other people

who are in the news these days. I'll read the name of a person and I'd like you to rate that person using something we call the feeling thermometer. Ratings between 50 degrees and 100 degrees mean that you feel favorable and warm toward the person. Ratings between 0 degrees and 50 degrees mean that you don't feel favorable toward the person and that you don't care too much for that person. You would rate the person at the 50 degree mark if you don't feel particularly warm or cold toward the person. How about Howard Wilson, the person I described earlier? How do you rate your feelings toward him?

5. Now I am going to read some statements about Howard Wilson, including some that may

not apply. For each statement, please tell me whether the word or phrase describes him extremely well, quite well, not too well, or not well at all. Wilson is too greedy to be a good politician. How well does this statement describe Wilson?

6. Now I am going to read a list of statements about Jews, including some that were made

many years ago. For each, please tell me whether it describes Jews extremely well, quite well, not too well, or not well at all . . . Jews are liberal politically. (Would you say this statement describes Jews extremely well, quite well, not too well, or not well at all?

Table 1 Study Design

Political Stereotype

Social Stereotype

Liberal Candidate Conservative Candidate

Control Condition Profile 1 No Label, Not Shady

Profile 4 No Label, Not Shady

Label-Only Condition Profile 2 Jewish Label, Not Shady Profile 5

Jewish Label, Not Shady

Shady and Label Condition

Profile 3 Jewish Label,

Shady

Profile 6 Jewish Label,

Shady

Table 2 Mean Perception of Candidates Liberalness

Political Stereotype

Social Stereotype Liberal Candidate Mean (SE) Conservative Candidate

Mean (SE)

Control Condition 4.06 (0.17) 3.30 (0.18)

Label-Only Condition 4.30 (0.17) 3.87 (0.23)

Shady and Label Condition 4.49 (0.17) 4.07 (0.19)

Table 3 Effect of Candidates Ethnic Label, Candidates Shadiness, and Candidates Ideology on

Perception of Candidates Liberal Ideology

Political Stereotype

Social Stereotype Liberal Candidate

Coefficient (SE) Conservative Candidate

Coefficient (SE) Difference (SE)

Control Condition (constant) 4.06 (0.17)*** 3.30 (0.20) *** 0.76 (0.26)***

Label-Only Condition (1 = Label condition, 0 = control or Shady conditions)

0.24 (0.25) 0.58 (0.28)** 0.34 (0.37)

Shady and Label Condition (1 = Shady condition, 0 = control or Label conditions)

0.43 (0.24)* 0.77 (0.29)*** 0.34 (0.37)

N 309 287

Adj. R2 0.004 0.02

Note: Perceived candidates ideology is a seven-point scale, 1 = extremely conservative, 7 = extremely liberal. Entries are OLS unstandardized coefficients and standard errors. * = p < .10; ** = p < .05; *** = p < .01

Table 4 The Impact of Perceived Ideology on Candidate Evaluation

Conservative Voters Only

Political Stereotype

Social Stereotype Liberal Candidate

Coefficient (SE) Conservative Candidate

Coefficient (SE) Difference (SE)

Control Condition -3.25 (1.30)*** -3.07 (1.36)** 0.18 (1.88)

Label-Only Condition -0.46 (1.55) -3.31 (1.16)*** 2.85 (1.94)

Shady and Label Condition -4.78 (1.42)*** -6.94 (1.41)*** 2.16 (2.00)

N / Adj. R2 308 / 0.87

Liberal Voters Only

Political Stereotype

Social Stereotype Liberal Candidate Coefficient (SE) Conservative Candidate

Coefficient (SE) Difference (SE)

Control Condition 0.11 (1.75) 4.98 (1.91)*** 4.87 (2.59)*

Label-Only Condition 2.82 (1.57)* 1.43 (1.34) 1.39 (2.06)

Shady and Label Condition 4.03 (1.53)*** -1.77 (1.68) 5.80 (2.27)**

N / Adj. R2 242 / 0.87

* = p < .10; ** = p < .05; *** = p < .01

Table 5 Estimated Mean Effects of Perceived Ideology on Candidate Evaluation

Conservative Voters, Estimated Means

Political Stereotype

Liberal Candidate Conservative Candidate

Social Stereotype Perceived Liberal Perceived

Conservative Perceived

Liberal Perceived

Conservative

Control Condition 40.2 59.7 37.2 55.7

Label-Only Condition 48.2 51.0 32.1 52.1

Shady and Label Condition 33.0 61.6 24.8 66.5

Liberal Voters, Estimated Means

Political Stereotype

Liberal Candidate Conservative Candidate

Social Stereotype Perceived Liberal Perceived

Conservative Perceived

Liberal Perceived

Conservative

Control Condition 45.8 45.2 61.4 32.2

Label-Only Condition 62.2 45.3 44.9 36.3

Shady and Label Condition 59.9 33.9 34.3 45.9