#  Working Group in Political Psychology and Behavior (WoGPoP) 

 



####  calendar\_today Date and Time 

 **September 6, 2019** 

 12:00PM - 01:30PM EDT 

####  pin\_drop Location 

 **CGIS South, S354**  



 

 



 

 The Working Group in Political Psychology and Behavior (WoGPoP) is an interdisciplinary forum for the presentation and discussion of current research that uses a psychological and empirical orientation to examine the micro-foundations of citizen and elite behavior.

 This week's presenter: **Jennifer Chudy, Wellesley College**

 **Abstract:** Reversing course from a long tradition of studying racial antipathy, I argue that racial sympathy, defined as white distress over black misfortune, shapes public opinion among a nontrivial subset of white Americans. Using an original measure – the racial sympathy index – I find that sympathy motivates support for policies perceived to benefit, as well as opposition to policies to perceived to harm, African Americans. Racial sympathy is distinct from a more general sympathy, as it does not shape opinion related to other groups. The concept is foremost a racial attitude; as evidence of this, I find that sympathy is activated when a policy draws attention to its black beneficiaries. In probing this effect, I find that even exposure to negative stereotypes of blacks does not extinguish the influence of sympathy. The consistent results across multiple national studies suggest that racial sympathy represents a distinct dimension of American racial attitudes.



 

 



 

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