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Big Questions
Big Questions
Political Identities
Political Identities
How do social and political identities and symbols shape political expression?
How do social and political identities and symbols shape political expression?
Intergroup Relations
Intergroup Relations
How do people negotiate group boundaries and belonging in multiethnic societies?
How do people negotiate group boundaries and belonging in multiethnic societies?
Media Effects
Media Effects
How do non-political media and other experiences influence our politics?
How do non-political media and other experiences influence our politics?
Dissertation
Dissertation
Non-Political Media, Political Repercussions?
How Language, Identity, and Context Shape Political Attitudes in the U.S.A.
Overview
Overview
Motivated by the rise of multicultural appeals in mainstream U.S. media, my dissertation investigated whether and how seeing media content in Spanish shifts public opinion about immigrants and Latinos/as.
Building on research suggesting that incidental exposure to the Spanish language increases perceptions of intergroup threat, I make two novel theoretical propositions:
language cues may serve as unintended triggers of opinion change in non-political contexts and,
language cues may alternatively increase perceptions of intergroup solidarity, not threat, among some people.
Drawing on research on immigration attitudes and the racial position model, I developed specific hypotheses about how language cues in political and non-political media affect the political attitudes of different racial groups. I tested some of these hypotheses through various survey experiments that manipulated language exposure in advertising and news content.
This research contributes to our understanding of media effects and intergroup relations while speaking to enduring debates around immigrant integration and how different groups define the boundaries of the American identity.
Funding
Funding
This research was generously supported by:
Ferber and Sudman Dissertation Awards for Survey Research
Selected WorkIng Papers
Selected WorkIng Papers
Entertainment News in Spanish? How Language Options in Political and Non-Political Content Shape Attitudes
Entertainment News in Spanish? How Language Options in Political and Non-Political Content Shape Attitudes
In the U.S., mainstream news outlets are producing some of their online content in both English and Spanish, increasing the chances that people from different racial and ethnic backgrounds encounter an outgroup language in their information environment. Past research shows that casual contact with the Spanish language, including seeing a political news story in Spanish, can increase exclusionary attitudes among White Americans. However, it remains unclear whether these effects also occur in non-political settings and how different racial and ethnic groups respond. In this paper, I examine language effects in both political and entertainment news, considering whether and how the type of news moderates the effects of seeing the Spanish language on racial and political attitudes for majority and minority audiences. The hypotheses were tested through online survey experiments that exposed participants to different types of news sections while manipulating the availability of Spanish-language articles and/or links to content in another language, which provides causal evidence of language effects on people's attitudes. This research provides the first theoretical and empirical examination of language effects among Black Americans and the first empirical findings of language effects through non-political news, contributing to our understanding of how bilingualism in mainstream media affects the opinions of multiethnic audiences.
If you would like to learn about my findings, please email me.
Non-Political Advertisements, Political Repercussions? The Effects of Spanish-Language Cues on Immigration Attitudes
Non-Political Advertisements, Political Repercussions? The Effects of Spanish-Language Cues on Immigration Attitudes
The ongoing shift in the racial and ethnic makeup of the U.S. has been accompanied by the rise of cultural appeals, including the occasional airing of Spanish-language commercials in mainstream English-language networks. In this paper, I examine whether and how exposure to Spanish in non-political ads shifts opinions about immigrants and immigration policy. While past research generally finds that incidental contact with the Spanish language can increase exclusionary attitudes towards immigrants among the racial majority, commercials often provide subtle exposure to foreign languages without posing a significant communication barrier in a context that is not necessarily meant to be political. Thus, ads allow me to test the minimal conditions necessary for language cues to lead to opinion change. The hypotheses were examined through a series of survey experiments.
If you would like to learn about my findings, please email me.
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