Dissertation: Negative Public Opinion: How Normalized Out-Group Biases Shape Politics
Committee: Thomas J. Wood (Chair), Thomas E. Nelson, Nicole Yadon
Data and Replication Files: https://github.com/smpedron/dissertation/
Date Defended: September 17, 2025
My dissertation looks at how normalized out-group biases shape political attitudes and behavior. I look at three cases related to interminority antipathy, voter fraud, and redpilling.
(Article 1) Interminority Antipathy: Racial Resentment in Asian American Public Opinion
Abstract: The bulk of scholarly research into racial resentment against African Americans has focused on Whites because of their dominant status in the United States’ racial hierarchy. This, however, eclipses the existence of antipathy between racial minorities, who may be socialized in similar ways as Whites and who also express differential degrees of racial resentment. This paper addresses this gap by examining the Black-Asian dynamic. Analyses of Cooperative Election Study data from 2010 to 2022 suggests that racial resentment against African Americans negatively impacts Asian Americans’ support for various policies that benefit minorities. Furthermore, Asian Americans born outside of the US are more likely to express more racially resentful attitudes than their US-born counterparts. Later generations, however, exhibit greater levels of resentment than first generation Asian Americans. These findings complicate classic assimilation theory for racial and ethnic minority groups, particularly groups primarily composed of individuals who obtain citizenship through naturalization processes. Due to partisan sorting along racial lines, as well as Republican and Democratic elites taking divergent positions on racialized policies, there are now two core, but fundamentally different cultures which racial minorities can assimilate into.
(Article 2) Who Commits Voter Fraud? Public (Mis)Perceptions of Americans
Abstract: I examine which demographic traits Americans most associate with the crime of in-person voter fraud and whether Americans, on average, believe noncitizens are more likely to commit in-person voter fraud compared to citizens in US presidential elections. I field an online choice-based conjoint experiment that varies six demographic attributes to a representative sample of US adults. The attributes respondents significantly associated with the crime of in-person illicit voting are gender (male) and prior conviction status (having a prior conviction). Additionally, Americans’ perceptions of who commits in-person voter fraud are not based on a simplified assumption that noncitizens are more likely to commit in-person voter fraud compared to citizens. The interaction of other demographic attributes with citizenship matters, implying nuances in Americans’ opinions. Supplementary analyses of qualitative data also points to the success of media counter-narratives that contradict false claims about the hyper-prevalence of voter fraud and that many respondents believe voter fraud happens through mail-in ballots.
(Article 3) Broadcasting Alt-Right Ideology: Epiphanic Attitude Shifts among People of Color
Abstract: This project explores how people of color (PoC) come to believe in alt-right ideologies. I argue that this process is driven, in part, by a combination of message framing and level of commitment to racial or ethnic identity. I focus on two key outcomes—support for anti-diversity and monoculturalism—which serve as proxies for support for racially homogeneous communities, a core alt-right ideal that targets PoC and noncitizens. Existing research has focused on White Americans, but popular media now broadcast these harmful ideas in ways that may make them more appealing to PoC by framing them as common sense solutions to societal issues like economic instability and job insecurity. By making these ideas more accessible and appear more reasonable, they create a pathway through which individuals may gradually adopt more extreme views. Through an online survey experiment, I assess whether exposure to different types of messaging shifts PoC attitudes toward anti-diversity and monoculturalism. The main findings suggest that the soft-selling treatment, which subtly reinforces racial group boundaries, is most effective overall and particularly influences PoC with high commitment to their racial identity, while PoC with low commitment to their racial identity are more susceptible to hard-sell messaging which uses more critical language such as biological arguments. This nuance is important because it reveals that certain segments of the population are more receptive to explicit and potentially controversial racial narratives. Additionally, I find that PoC possess a range of views about community composition, which challenges assumptions about uniform support for diversity in residential communities.
Funding Disclosure: My dissertation research is generously supported by The Institute for Humane Studies (Grant Nos. IHS018597, IHS018632, and IHS018995), The Ohio State University Graduate School (Distinguished University Fellowship and Alumni Grants for Graduate Research and Scholarship), The Ohio State University Department of Political Science (two Internal Research Grants and two Dreher Awards), and The Ohio State University Mershon Center for International Security Studies (Graduate Research Grant).
Any findings, conclusions, opinions, and recommendations expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of the funders. All mistakes are my own.
Stephanie Pedron 