Political Awareness and the Identity-to-Politics Link in Public Opinion
Date
2023-03-07
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Journal of Politics
Abstract
Members of different social groups often hold distinctive political attitudes. Research shows substantial divides based on characteristics like religion, race, gender, and sexuality, suggesting a straightforward identity-to-politics link. But making that link requires some knowledge and understanding of politics, which not everyone has. As a result, I show, political awareness often moderates the link between social identity and political views. Among the least engaged, identity is only weakly related to politics, and the differences between groups are muted. As awareness increases, the connection between group membership and political attitudes tightens, and the magnitude of identity gaps grows. The substantive impact of awareness varies across groups, and there are notable exceptions to these findings. In general though, the identity-to-politics link—and thus many of the divisions attributed to demographic characteristics—is conditional on political awareness.
Description
© 2023 Southern Political Science Association. All rights reserved. This article was originally published in Journal of Politics on 03/07/2023. The version of record is available at: https://doi.org/10.1086/723022. This article will be embargoed until 3/7/2024.
Keywords
political awareness, identity politics, public opinion
Citation
Jones, Philip Edward. “Political Awareness and the Identity-to-Politics Link in Public Opinion.” The Journal of Politics 85, no. 2 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1086/723022.