Race–gender bias in white Americans’ preferences for gun availability

We argue that Americans’ policy attitudes on firearm availability are influenced by the identity of the prospective owner. We use an experiment to demonstrate that attitudes towards gun control/availability are influenced by both race and gender; whether subjects are primed to think of African-Ameri...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of public policy Vol. 41; no. 4; pp. 818 - 834
Main Authors Hayes, Matthew, Fortunato, David, Hibbing, Matthew V.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01.12.2021
Subjects
African Americans
Attitudes
Availability
Beneficiaries
Bias
Black people
Constitutions
Drug policy
Ethnic identity
Firearm laws & regulations
Firearms
Gender
Narcotics
Political attitudes
Political parties
Priming
Race
Racial bias
Roles
Rural areas
Self interest
Sexism
Women
United States > US
constitutional rights
gun
experiment
gender
race
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Summary:We argue that Americans’ policy attitudes on firearm availability are influenced by the identity of the prospective owner. We use an experiment to demonstrate that attitudes towards gun control/availability are influenced by both race and gender; whether subjects are primed to think of African-Americans versus whites or men versus women has a substantial impact on the degree to which they support firearm access. We find that for many white Americans, Black men and white women stand on opposite poles – priming white Americans with the thought of a Black man decreases support for gun availability, whereas priming the thought of a white woman increases support for gun availability. Further, the magnitude of this effect is quite large – comparable to the difference between Democrats and Republicans. These findings underscore the importance of thinking about the complicated role identity groups play in understanding Americans’ preferences for government (in)action, even in policy areas with explicit Constitutional mandates.
ISSN:0143-814X
1469-7815
DOI:10.1017/S0143814X20000288