Black–White Relations in the Wake of Hispanic Growth: Generosity and Identification

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Principal investigator:

Maria Abascal

Brown University

Email: maria_abascal@brown.edu

Homepage: http://www.mariaabascal.org/


Sample size: 781

Field period: 01/26/2015-06/18/2015

Hypotheses
- Do socioeconomic resources (education and household income) moderate the effect of Hispanic growth on Blacks' and Whites' contributions to Blacks and Whites?
- Does county Hispanic population share moderate the effect of Hispanic growth on Blacks' and Whites' contributions to Blacks and Whites?
Experimental Manipulations
- Hispanic growth prime: "Latino Population Grows" (treatment) or "iPhone Shares Grow" (control);
- Recipient with a distinctively white name (e.g., Carrie, Todd) or recipient with a distinctively black name (e.g., Aisha, Darnell)
Outcomes
Dictator game contribution (out of $10 endowment): "... Below, please indicate how much money you would like to give [recipient name]."

Summary of Results
Preliminary analyses yield some evidence that education moderates the effect of Hispanic growth. Specifically, Whites with a high school education or less give relatively more to black versus white recipients if they first read about Hispanic growth. Whites with at least some college education, though, give relatively less to black versus white recipients if they first read about Hispanic growth, with the biggest effect among those with middling education (some college or Associate's Degree). By contrast, Blacks with a high school education or less as well as those with a college degree or more give relatively less to black versus white recipients if they first read about Hispanic growth, whereas Blacks with middling education give relatively more to black versus white recipients if they first read about Hispanic growth. There is no reliable evidence that income or county Hispanic share moderate the effect of Hispanic growth. Analysis of these data is ongoing, and one of the challenges is misrecognition of distinctively white and black first names in the absence of surnames.

References

Abascal, Maria. 2016. "A Little Learning is a Dangerous Thing: Education and Reactions to Hispanic Growth." Chapter 4 in Black White Relations in the Wake of Hispanic Population Growth, Ph.D. diss., Princeton University.