IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/socsci/v103y2022i1p90-107.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The effect of the 2020 racial justice protests on attitudes and preferences in rural and urban America

Author

Listed:
  • Justin Curtis

Abstract

Objective This paper seeks to understand the impact of sustained protests for racial justice on attitudes toward racial minorities, the police, and policies that would benefit racial minorities. Methods Using a large, nationally representative survey collected before and after the death of George Floyd and the protest movement that followed it, I employ a propensity score matching to identify the causal impact of these protests on perceptions of discrimination against blacks, favorability of the police, racial prejudice, and support for reparations for slavery. I also identify heterogeneous effects in rural America to identify the limits of these attitude shifts. Results I find evidence that George Floyd's death caused an increased perception of discrimination against blacks, decreased favorability of the police, decreased racial prejudice, and increased support for reparations. I also find muted and heterogeneous effects in rural America. Conclusion These findings speak to the power of social protest to shift attitudes and policy preferences and to the persistent divide between urban and rural Americans.

Suggested Citation

  • Justin Curtis, 2022. "The effect of the 2020 racial justice protests on attitudes and preferences in rural and urban America," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 103(1), pages 90-107, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:socsci:v:103:y:2022:i:1:p:90-107
    DOI: 10.1111/ssqu.13105
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.13105
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/ssqu.13105?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andreas Madestam & Daniel Shoag & Stan Veuger & David Yanagizawa-Drott, 2013. "Do Political Protests Matter? Evidence from the Tea Party Movement," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 128(4), pages 1633-1685.
    2. Regina Branton & Valerie Martinez‐Ebers & Tony E. Carey & Tetsuya Matsubayashi, 2015. "Social Protest and Policy Attitudes: The Case of the 2006 Immigrant Rallies," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 59(2), pages 390-402, February.
    3. Sophia J. Wallace & Chris Zepeda‐Millán & Michael Jones‐Correa, 2014. "Spatial and Temporal Proximity: Examining the Effects of Protests on Political Attitudes," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 58(2), pages 433-448, April.
    4. Enos, Ryan D. & Kaufman, Aaron R. & Sands, Melissa L., 2019. "Can Violent Protest Change Local Policy Support? Evidence from the Aftermath of the 1992 Los Angeles Riot," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 113(4), pages 1012-1028, November.
    5. Thomas Craemer, 2015. "Estimating Slavery Reparations: Present Value Comparisons of Historical Multigenerational Reparations Policies," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 96(2), pages 639-655, June.
    6. Ho, Daniel E. & Imai, Kosuke & King, Gary & Stuart, Elizabeth A., 2007. "Matching as Nonparametric Preprocessing for Reducing Model Dependence in Parametric Causal Inference," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 15(3), pages 199-236, July.
    7. repec:cup:apsrev:v:113:y:2019:i:04:p:1012-1028_00 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Stanley Feldman & Leonie Huddy, 2005. "Racial Resentment and White Opposition to Race‐Conscious Programs: Principles or Prejudice?," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 49(1), pages 168-183, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nupia Martínez, Oscar & Álvarez Gallo, Carlos Andrés, 2024. "The Impact of Massive Protests on Individual Attitudes," Documentos CEDE 21190, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.
    2. Felipe González & Magdalena Larreboure, 2021. "The Impact of the Women’s March on the U.S. House Election," Documentos de Trabajo 560, Instituto de Economia. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile..
    3. Stan Hok‐Wui Wong & Mathew Y. H. Wong, 2020. "“Distant Participation” and Youth Political Attitudes: Evidence from a Natural Experiment," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 101(4), pages 1489-1512, July.
    4. González, Felipe, 2020. "Collective action in networks: Evidence from the Chilean student movement," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    5. Cariolle, Joël & Elkhateeb, Yasmine & Maurel, Mathilde, 2024. "Misinformation technology: Internet use and political misperceptions in Africa," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 400-433.
    6. Freitas Monteiro, Teresa & Prömel, Christopher, 2024. "Local far-right demonstrations and nationwide public attitudes toward migration," Discussion Papers 2024/3, Free University Berlin, School of Business & Economics.
    7. Bouke Klein Teeselink & Georgios Melios, 2022. "Weather to Protest: The Effect of Black Lives Matter Protests on the 2020 Presidential Election," Working Papers CEB 22-007, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    8. Liu, Yan & Chen, Xi & Yan, Zhijun, 2019. "Depression in the House: The Effects of Household Air Pollution from Solid Fuel Use in China," IZA Discussion Papers 12654, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Noemi Kreif & Richard Grieve & Rosalba Radice & Zia Sadique & Roland Ramsahai & Jasjeet S. Sekhon, 2012. "Methods for Estimating Subgroup Effects in Cost-Effectiveness Analyses That Use Observational Data," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 32(6), pages 750-763, November.
    10. Leopoldo Fergusson & Carlos Molina, 2020. "Facebook Causes Protests," HiCN Working Papers 323, Households in Conflict Network.
    11. Gonzalez, Felipe & Prem, Mounu & von Dessauer, Cristine, 2023. "Empowerment or Indoctrination? Women Centers Under Dictatorship," SocArXiv 64mf9, Center for Open Science.
    12. Do, Manh Hung & Nguyen, Trung Thanh & Grote, Ulrike, 2023. "Land consolidation, rice production, and agricultural transformation: Evidence from household panel data for Vietnam," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 157-173.
    13. Federico Biagi & Daniele Bondonio & Alberto Martini, 2015. "Counterfactual Impact Evaluation of Enterprise Support Programmes. Evidence from a Decade of Subsidies to Italian Firm," ERSA conference papers ersa15p1619, European Regional Science Association.
    14. Bono, Pierre-Henri & David, Quentin & Desbordes, Rodolphe & Py, Loriane, 2022. "Metro infrastructure and metropolitan attractiveness," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    15. Zichen Deng & Maarten Lindeboom, 2021. "Early-life Famine Exposure, Hunger Recall and Later-life Health," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 21-054/V, Tinbergen Institute.
    16. Leah Warfield Smith & Randall Lee Rose & Alex R. Zablah & Heath McCullough & Mohammad “Mike” Saljoughian, 2023. "Examining post-purchase consumer responses to product automation," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 51(3), pages 530-550, May.
    17. Thomas Craemer, 2007. "An Evolutionary Model of Racial Attitude Formation: Socially Shared and Idiosyncratic Racial Attitudes," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 614(1), pages 74-101, November.
    18. Baron, Opher & Callen, Jeffrey L. & Segal, Dan, 2023. "Does the bullwhip matter economically? A cross-sectional firm-level analysis," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 259(C).
    19. Noémi Kreif & Richard Grieve & M. Zia Sadique, 2013. "Statistical Methods For Cost‐Effectiveness Analyses That Use Observational Data: A Critical Appraisal Tool And Review Of Current Practice," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(4), pages 486-500, April.
    20. Jonathan Colmer & Ralf Martin & Mirabelle Muûls & Ulrich J. Wagner, 2020. "Does pricing carbon mitigate climate change? Firm-level evidence from the European Union emissions trading scheme," CEP Discussion Papers dp1728, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:socsci:v:103:y:2022:i:1:p:90-107. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0038-4941 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.