Melting Pot
Fitting In but Getting Fat: Identity Threat and Dietary Choices among U.S. Immigrant Groups
Maya Guendelman, Sapna Cheryan & Benoît Monin
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
In two experiments, we tested the hypothesis that pressure felt by U.S. immigrant groups to prove they belong in America causes them to consume more prototypically American, and consequently less healthy, foods. When asked first if they spoke English, Asian Americans (but not White Americans) were three times as likely (75% vs. 25%) to report a prototypically American food as their favorite (Experiment 1). When their American identity was directly challenged, Asian Americans ordered and ate dishes that were more American than those who were not threatened, thus consuming dishes with an average of 180 additional calories and 12 extra grams of fat (Experiment 2). Identity-based psychological processes may help explain why the diets of U.S. immigrant groups tend to decline in nutritional value with longer residence in the U.S. and over generations.
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Matt Motyl et al.
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Many studies demonstrate that mortality salience can increase negativity toward outgroups but few have examined variables that mitigate this effect. The present research examined whether subtly priming people to think of human experiences shared by people from diverse cultures increases perceived similarity of members of different groups, which then reduces MS-induced negativity toward outgroups. In Study 1, exposure to pictures of people from diverse cultures engaged incommon human activities non-significantly reversed the effect of MS on implicit anti-Arab prejudice. In Study 2, thinking about similarities between one's own favorite childhood memories and those of people from other countries eliminated MS-induced explicit negative attitudes toward immigrants. In Study 3, thinking about similarities between one's own painful childhood memories and those of people from other countries eliminated the MS-induced reduction in support for peace-making. Mediation analyses suggest the effects were driven by perceived similarity of people across cultures. These findings suggest that priming widely shared human experiencescan attenuate MS-induced intergroup conflict.
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Xenophobia Among Hispanic College Students and Implications for the Criminal Justice System
Claudia San Miguel et al.
Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, February 2011, Pages 95-109
Abstract:
Immigration, particularly the illegal immigration of Mexicans, has emerged as one of the nation's foremost social problems. This study explores attitudes toward illegal immigrants among a sample of Hispanic college students of primarily Mexican decent (N = 216). Through an intrarace inquiry strategy, we examine whether illegal immigrants (a) are a growing problem in the United States, (b) contribute to the decline of society, and (c) are more likely than other groups in the United States to break the law. Findings reveal that college students with positive attitudes toward Mexico and the Mexican culture were more likely to hold negative attitudes toward illegal immigrants. Gender, annual household income, and college major were also found to be statistically significant predictors of attitude toward illegal immigrants. As Hispanics constitute the largest voting minority group, the impact of the findings on public policy, including implications for the criminal justice system, are discussed.
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Immigration and Intermarriage Among Hispanics: Crossing Racial and Generational Boundaries
Daniel Lichter, Julie Carmalt & Zhenchao Qian
Sociological Forum, June 2011, Pages 241-264
Abstract:
Rates of Hispanic intermarriage with whites declined for the first time during the 1990s. One hypothesis, which we test here, is that the recent influx of new immigrants has provided an expanding marriage market for Hispanics, reinforced cultural and ethnic identity, and slowed the process of marital assimilation. In this article, we use data from the March Current Population Survey (1995-2008) to identify generational differences in Hispanic-white intermarriage. The results indicate that second-generation Hispanics were more likely to marry first- rather than third-generation Hispanics or whites, a pattern that was reinforced over the study period. The results suggest declining rates of intermarriage among second-generation Hispanics-a pattern that diverges sharply from those observed among third-plus-generation Hispanics, where in-marriage with other Hispanics declined over time. If couched in the language of straight line assimilation theory, third-plus-generation Hispanics are assimilating by increasingly marrying other third-generation co-ethnics and whites. On the other hand, assimilation among the second-generation is slowing down as its members increasingly reconnect to their native culture by marrying immigrants.
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George Hawley
Social Science Quarterly, June 2011, Pages 404-422
Objective: I propose that the effect of partisanship on views on immigration is context dependent. I argue that Republicans in counties experiencing high levels of immigration are more likely to support new immigration restrictions in contrast to Democrats and Independents than Republicans in counties with a relatively small foreign-born population, and I suspect this is the case because Republicans in high-immigration counties feel politically threatened by the foreign-born residents, who are more likely to support Democratic candidates.
Method: To test this theory, I create hierarchical logit models of views on immigration policy in which individual party identification interacts with the size of the local immigrant population. Individual-level data were drawn from the 2004 National Annenberg Election Survey and county-level contextual variables from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Results: I find that the effect of partisanship on individual views on immigration is context dependent; native-born Republicans are more likely to support immigration restrictions when their local community has a large immigrant population and Democrats less likely.
Conclusion: In areas where immigration levels are low, partisanship is a weak predictor of immigration views. As the foreign-born population increases, however, the views of Republicans, Democrats, and Independents increasingly diverge.
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Kumar Yogeeswaranz et al.
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Many pluralistic nations are witnessing vigorous debate about multiculturalism. In the U.S., Americans generally embrace principles of ethnic diversity but dislike minorities who express strong ethnic identification. Two experiments examined this seeming contradiction by differentiating between ethnic identity expressed in private vs. public by non-White and White individuals. Then we tested whether individuals‘ identity expressions differentially affected perceivers‘ construal of their entire ethnic group as legitimately American. Results indicated that at a conscious level, White and non-White ethnic groups were held to the same standard and construed as significantly less American when members expressed their ethnic identity publicly vs. privately. However, at an unconscious level, a double standard emerged: non-White ethnic groups were implicitly rejected as less American if members expressed ethnic identity publicly, while White ethnics were implicitly accepted as legitimate Americans regardless of where they expressed ethnic identity.
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Emile Lester & Patrick Roberts
Politics and Religion, forthcoming
Abstract:
After cultural and religious controversy in Modesto, California, community leaders attempted to increase tolerance and respect by requiring an unique world religions course for high school students. The first large-n empirical study of the effect of teaching about religion in public schools indicates that students taking the course showed statistically significant increases in passive tolerance, their willingness to refrain from discriminatory behavior, and active respect, the willingness to take action to counter discrimination. This research documents the circumstances that gave rise to the course and evaluates the course's effects using qualitative and quantitative evidence. It also connects the course to a larger research tradition in political science on the effects of civic education programs that promote liberal, democratic values.
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Peter Achterberg et al.
American Behavioral Scientist, May 2011, Pages 589-608
Abstract:
In this article, the authors address the question of whether and how the appreciation of popular music consumers has globalized in the four decades since the mid-1960s. They use information from American, Dutch, French, and German popular music charts from 1965 through 2006. They find no corroboration for an overall trend toward an internationalization of hits. However, important shifts are noticeable underneath the surface. For the period up until 1989, the authors find increasing international diversity as well as increasing Americanization. From the 1990s onwards, they find a growing popularity of national music in all three European countries in the study.
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Risk as Social Context: Immigration Policy and Autism in California
Christine Fountain & Peter Bearman
Sociological Forum, June 2011, Pages 215-240
Abstract:
Motivated by the dramatic increase in autism diagnoses in recent years, research into risk factors has uncovered substantial variation in autism prevalence by race/ethnicity, SES, and geography. Less studied is the connection between autism diagnosis rates and the social and political context. In this article, we link the temporal pattern of autism diagnosis for Hispanic children in California to state and federal anti-immigrant policy, particularly ballot initiative Proposition 187, limiting access to public services for undocumented immigrants and their families. Using a population-level data set of 1992-2003 California births linked to 1992-2006 autism case records, we show that the effects of state and federal policies toward immigrants are visible in the rise and fall of autism risk over time. The common epidemiological practice of estimating risk on pooled samples is thereby shown to obscure patterns and mis-estimate effect sizes. Finally, we illustrate how spatial variation in Hispanic autism rates reflects differential vulnerability to these policies. This study reveals not only the spillover effects of immigration policy on children's health, but also the hazards of treating individual attributes like ethnicity as risk factors without regard to the social and political environments that give them salience.
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Co-ethnic markets: Financial penalty or opportunity?
Rachel Shinnar, Michael Aguilera & Thomas Lyons
International Business Review, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper applies the view of resource based theory to minority entrepreneurship. It examines minority entrepreneurs' reliance on co-ethnic markets in terms of the impact this has on the financial performance of their firms. This research focuses on three minority groups in particular: African Americans, Korean Americans and Mexican Americans. Findings indicate that owner's age and marital status, but not business age, shape the extent to which a business owner relies on co-ethnic clients. Furthermore, Korean American owned firms are less likely to have high proportions of co-ethnic clients compared to Mexican- and African American owned firms. Having a large co-ethnic clientele results in a financial penalty in terms of the revenue an owner draws from his or her business. This penalty occurs in businesses owned by all three groups of entrepreneurs. Findings lend support to the resource based theory view of the firm in terms of the need to dynamically apply resources in order to achieve a competitive advantage. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.
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Immigration and the Neighborhood
Albert Saiz & Susan Wachter
American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, May 2011, Pages 169-188
Abstract:
Within metropolitan areas, neighborhoods of growing immigrant settlement are becoming relatively less desirable to natives. We deploy a geographic diffusion model to instrument for the growth of immigrant density in a neighborhood. Our approach deals explicitly with potential unobservable shocks that may be correlated with proximity to immigrant enclaves. The evidence is consistent with a causal interpretation of an impact from growing immigrant density to native flight and relatively slower housing value appreciation. Further evidence indicates that these results are driven more by the demand for residential segregation based on ethnicity and education than by foreignness per se.
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Rene Rocha & Robert Wrinkle
Policy Studies Journal, May 2011, Pages 309-328
Abstract:
Among the most well-established consequences of the election of minorities to public office is an increase in the degree to which minority interests are substantively represented. Recent work argued that minorities also benefit from the presence of female legislators; however, it remains unclear whether minorities can expect to benefit from the presence of all women or solely women of color. Susan Dovi has argued that descriptive representatives are more likely to be effective if they possess strong mutual relationships with disposed subgroups of historically disadvantaged groups. In this piece, we argued that one implication of Dovi's argument is that women of color will be more effective descriptive representatives than their male counterparts. We examined this hypothesis by focusing on the effect of Latino/a school board members on education policies in Texas school districts. The results suggested that while the presence of Latinos on school boards is associated with increased district financial and institutional support for bilingual education, the presence of Latina board members results in much more substantial levels of support. We found no evidence for the notion that the substantive representation of Latino/as is facilitated by the presence of non-Latina women on the board.
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The Influence of Spanish-Language Media on Latino Public Opinion and Group Consciousness
Yann Kerevel
Social Science Quarterly, June 2011, Pages 509-534
Objective: This article determines if the use of Spanish-language media among Latinos influences public opinion on various policy issues and group consciousness.
Methods: Using a 2004 national public opinion survey of U.S. Latinos, a multivariate analysis is run to determine the effect of language media preference on immigration policy, abortion, same-sex marriage, and three measures of group consciousness.
Results: I find more frequent use of Spanish-language media leads to more liberal attitudes toward immigration, but has no effect on opinions toward abortion and same-sex marriage. I also find increased use of Spanish-language media leads to increased levels of group consciousness.
Conclusions: The differences in attitudes are due to the diverging goals of Spanish-language and English-language media. The effect of using Spanish-language media serves to promote a sense of group consciousness among Latinos by reinforcing roots in Latin America and the commonalities among Latinos of varying national origin.
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Between Black and Brown: Blaxican (Black-Mexican) Multiracial Identity in California
Rebecca Romo
Journal of Black Studies, April 2011, Pages 402-426
Abstract:
This article explores the racial/ethnic identities of multiracial Black-Mexicans or "Blaxicans." In-depth interviews with 12 Blaxican individuals in California reveal how they negotiate distinct cultural systems to accomplish multiracial identities. I argue that choosing, accomplishing, and asserting a Blaxican identity challenges the dominant monoracial discourse in the United States, in particular among African American and Chicana/o communities. That is, Blaxican respondents are held accountable by African Americans and Chicanas/os/Mexicans to monoracial notions of "authenticity." The process whereby Blaxicans move between these monoracial spaces to create multiracial identities illustrates crucial aspects of the social construction of race/ethnicity in the United States and the influence of social interactions in shaping how Blaxicans develop their multiracial identities.
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The more, the merrier? Numerical strength versus subgroup distinctiveness in minority groups
Andrew Livingstone et al.
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, July 2011, Pages 786-793
Abstract:
Evidence attests to the efforts made by minority groups to defend and promote ‘distinctive' attributes that potentially define the ingroup. However, these attributes are often only available to a prototypical minority within the minority category. In two studies we tested the hypothesis that, under certain conditions, large projected increases in the numerical strength of a ‘distinctive' attribute (emotional intelligence in Study 1; ingroup language in Study 2) within a minority category can paradoxically evoke less-than-positive reactions from those who already have the attribute. Findings confirmed that while a large projected increase in the numerical strength of a ‘distinctive' attribute was viewed positively when the comparative context focused on the inter-category relation with a majority outgroup, this increase was viewed less positively, and as undermining their own identity, in a narrower intra-category context. Implications for identity management strategies in minority groups are discussed.
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Ethnic Residential Segregation by Nativity in Great Britain and the United States
John Iceland, Pablo Mateos & Gregory Sharp
Journal of Urban Affairs, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study examines patterns of ethnic residential integration in Great Britain and the United States. Using data from 2000/2001 censuses from these two countries, we compute segregation indexes for comparably defined ethnic groups by nativity and for specific foreign-born groups. We find that blacks are much less segregated in Great Britain than in the United States, and black segregation patterns by nativity tend to be consistent with spatial assimilation in the former country (the foreign-born are more segregated than the native-born) but not in the latter. Among Asian groups, however, segregation tends to be lower in the United States, and segregation patterns by nativity are more consistent with spatial assimilation in the United States but not in Great Britain. These findings suggest that intergenerational minority disadvantage persists among blacks in the United States and among Asians in Great Britain. We caution, however, that there are important differences in levels of segregation among specific foreign-born Asian groups, suggesting that assimilation trajectories likely differ by country of origin. Finally, the fact that segregation levels are considerably higher in the United States for a majority of groups, including white foreign-born groups, suggests that factors not solely related to race or physical appearance drive higher levels of ethnic residential segregation in the United States.
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Dennis Patterson, Gamal Gasim & Jangsup Choi
Politics and Religion, forthcoming
Abstract:
In a post-September 11 world, no religious group in the United States has become more important yet remains more misunderstood than Muslim-Americans. This is particularly true with respect to the manner in which religious and political attitudes influence Muslim-Americans' political behavior. This article addresses this issue by using data gathered from surveys taken in 70 mosques throughout the United States. With these data, this article maps the political and religious attitudes and behavior of mosque-attending Muslim-Americans and then analyzes the voting behavior of these respondents in the 2000 and 2004 Presidential elections. It will show that the cultural and religious traditions of Islam have resulted in most mosque-attending Muslim-Americans being social conservatives and, as a result, report having voted for Bush in 2000. It will also show that increasingly negative perceptions of the manner in which the United States war in Iraq has affected Muslims led many to switch loyalties and cast their ballots for Kerry in 2004.