Supporting Information Document
Facial Expressions
Anger Condition
Fear Condition
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Measurement
Experimental Study
Anger and Fear Conditions are dummy variables, where 1= treatment condition and 0= control (“relaxed”)
condition.
Ethnocentrism consists of four items (feeling thermometer ratings of whites, blacks, Hispanics, and Asians)
and is coded to run from -1 to 1, where higher values indicate an endorsement of ethnocentrism. The
feeling thermometer scale asks respondents how they feel about groups in society. The question is the
following: “We would like to get your feelings about some groups in American society. When you see the
group, please rate it with what we call a feeling thermometer by typing a number from 0 to 100. On this
feeling thermometer, ratings between 0 and 49 degrees mean that you don't feel favorably toward the
group and that you don't care too much for that group. Ratings between 51 and 100 degrees mean that you
feel favorably and warm toward the group. If you don't feel particularly warm or cold toward a group you
would rate them at 50 degrees.”
Ideology is coded onto a 0-1 scale and ranges from 0=very liberal to 1=very conservative. The measures
were based on a two-item skip pattern. 1) “We hear a lot of talk these days about liberals and
conservatives. On a 7-point scale, where 1 is very liberal and 7 is very conservative, where would you
place yourself on this scale, or haven't you thought much about this?” 2) If respondent enters 8 “haven’t
thought much about this” then they get “If you had to choose, would you consider yourself a liberal, a
moderate, or a conservative?” (Mean=.57 S.D.=.29)
Authoritarianism consists of five items and is coded onto a 0-1 scale, where the higher values correspond to
endorsement of authoritarianism. The five items were additively scaled. Respondents were asked if they
agree strongly, agree somewhat, neither agree nor disagree, disagree somewhat, or disagree strongly with
the following items: 1) Some of the worst people in our country nowadays are those who do not respect
our flag, our leaders, and the normal way things are supposed to be done; 2) A lot of our rules regarding
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modesty and sexual behavior are just customs which are not necessarily any better or holier that those
which other people follow; 3) Students in high school and university must be encouraged to challenge their
parents’ ways, confront established authorities, and in general criticize the customs and traditions of our
society; 4) The sooner we get rid of the traditional family structure, where the father is the head of the
family and the children are taught to obey authority automatically, the better; 5) It is always better to trust
the judgment of the proper authorities in government and religion than to listen to the noisy rabblerousers in our society who are trying to create doubts in people’s minds. (Mean=.58 S.D.=.25)
Education is coded onto a 0-1 scale, where the higher value corresponds to post-graduate degree.
(Mean=.43 S.D.=.29)
Income is coded onto a 0-1 scale, where the higher value corresponds to highest income bracket. (Mean=.56
S.D.=.29)
Age is a continuous variable and ranges from 18 to 83 years old. (Mean=48 S.D.=15)
South is a dummy variable, where 0=non-southern resident and 1=southern resident. The southern states
are Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, D. C., Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi,
North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. (Mean=.51
S.D.=.50)
Racial Policy Opinions ranges from 0-1, where the higher value corresponds with more opposition to racial
policies. The measure is a combination of government assistance to blacks and affirmative action.
Government assistance to blacks is based on the following item: “Some people think that Blacks have
been discriminated against for so long that the government has a special obligation to help improve their
living standards. Others believe that the government should not be giving special treatment to Blacks.
Where would you place yourself on this scale, or haven’t you thought much about this?” The scale ranged
from 1 to 7, where 1 = I strongly agree the government is obligated to help blacks and 7= I strongly agree
that government shouldn’t give preferential treatment. Affirmative action is based on the following item:
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“Some people say that because of past discrimination against blacks, preference in hiring and promotion
should be given to blacks. Others say preferential hiring and promotion of blacks is wrong because it gives
blacks advantages they haven't earned. What about your opinion-- are you for or against preferential hiring
and promotion of blacks?” The response options are (1) For preferential hiring and promotion of blacks,
(2) Against hiring and promotion of blacks. (Mean=.80 S.D.=.26)
Immigration Policy Opinion ranges from 0-1, where the higher value corresponds with stronger opposition to
immigration. Respondents were asked if they agree strongly, agree somewhat, neither agree nor disagree,
disagree somewhat, or disagree strongly with the following statement “Prohibiting children of illegal
immigrants from attending U.S. public schools.” (Mean=.63 S.D.=.40)
ANES Study
Anger is the sum of 2 measures recoded onto a 0-1 scale, where higher values indicate more anger. The
emotion items are directed at the Democratic (i.e., Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and John Kerry) and Republican
(George H.W. Bush, Bob Dole, and George W. Bush) presidential candidates. (Mean=.38 S.D.=.34).
Fear is the sum of 2 measures recoded onto a 0-1 scale, where higher values indicate more fear. The
emotion items are directed at the Democratic (i.e., Bill Clinton, Al Gore and John Kerry) and Republican
(George H.W. Bush, Bob Dole, and George W. Bush) presidential candidates. (Mean=.28 S.D.=.32).
Ethnocentrism is the same measure used in the experimental study, excluding the feeling thermometer
toward Asians (Mean=.08 S.D.=,17).
Ideology is recoded onto a 0-1 scale and ranges from 0=extremely liberal, to and 1=extremely conservative.
The specific item states: “We hear a lot of talk these days about liberals and conservatives. When it comes
to politics, do you usually think of yourself as extremely liberal, liberal, slightly liberal, moderate or middle
of the road, slightly conservative, extremely conservative, or haven't you thought much about this?”
(Mean=.54 S.D.=.21).
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Party identification is measured with the standard 7-point party identification scale (recoded to run 0-1). This
measure is captured with a three-item, skip pattern design: (1) "Generally speaking, do you usually think of
yourself as a Republican, a Democrat, and Independent, or what?" (2) [If R answers Rep or Dem] "Would
you call your-self a strong Republican/Democrat or a not very strong Republican/Democrat?" [3] [If R
answers Independent] "Do you think of yourself as closer to the Republican Party or the Democratic
Party? (Mean=.46 S.D.=.34)
Limited Government is measured with one item and is recoded onto a 0-1scale, where 1=support for limited
government. The specific item is “Some people think the government should provide fewer services, even
in areas such as health and education, in order to reduce spending. Other people feel that it is important
for the government to provide many more services even if it means an increase in spending. Where would
you place yourself on this scale, or haven't you thought much about this?” (Mean=.48 S.D.=.24)
Egalitarianism is the sum of 6 items recoded onto a 0-1 scale. The specific item are: 1) Our society should
do whatever is necessary to make sure that everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed; 2) We have gone
too far in pushing equal rights in this country; 3) One of the big problems in this country is that we don't
give everyone an equal chance; 4) It is not really that big a problem if some people have more of a chance
in life than others; 5) This country would be better off if we worried less about how equal people are; 6) If
people were treated more equally in this country we would have many fewer problems. (Mean=.61
S.D.=.20).
Past Assessment of Economic Conditions is coded onto a 0-1 scale, where 1=worse, .5=stayed same, and
0=better. The specific item states “Now thinking about the economy. Would you say that over the past
year the nation's economy has gotten better, stayed the same or gotten worse? (Mean=.57 S.D.=.40).
Education is coded onto a 0-1 scale, where the higher value corresponds to post-graduate degree.
(Mean=.55 S.D.=.28).
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Income is coded onto a 0-1 scale, where the higher value corresponds to highest income bracket. (Mean=.47
S.D.=.29).
Age is a continuous variable and ranges from 17 to 97 years old. (Mean=47 S.D.=17).
South is a dummy variable, where 0=non-southern resident and 1=southern resident. The southern states
are Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, D. C., Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi,
North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. (Mean=.35
S.D.=.48).
Male is a dummy variable, where 0=female and 1=male. (Mean=.45 S.D.=.50)
Racial Policy Opinions consist of the same measures as the experimental study. The measure is recoded onto
a 0-1 scale. (Mean=.71 S.D.=27).
Immigration Policy Opinion is a dummy variable, where 0= increase or keep the same and 1=decrease
immigration levels. The specific item is the following” Do you think the number of immigrants from
foreign countries who are permitted to come to the United States to live should be increased, left the same
as it is now, or decreased?”. (Mean=.49 S.D.=50).
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Result Section:
% of Respondents Mentioning Race-Related
and Immigrant-Related Words
Figure 5
2008 Experiment: Mentioning Race and Immigrant-Related Words in Open-Ended Responses Across
Experimental Conditions
50%
45%
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Anger Condition
Fear Condition
Control Condition
Experimental Conditions
The open-ended responses can also give me a look at what people are thinking about across the
experimental conditions. I can see if thoughts about out-groups (such as blacks, Hispanics, Asians, or
immigrants) are more accessible in memory when whites feel angry rather than fearful or relaxed. To test
the accessibility of thoughts about the out-group, I look at respondents’ open-ended responses to the
emotion induction task. By looking at subjects’ responses, I can see if thoughts about the out-group are
more salient under particular emotional conditions. To determine references to the out-group, I had two
trained research assistants code for whether several race and immigrant-related words were mentioned,
such as blacks, Hispanics, Asians, immigrants, race, racial prejudice, Barack Obama, affirmative action,
immigration, welfare, or crime. My expectation is that respondents in the anger condition should be more
likely to mention race and immigrant-related words in their open-ended responses than those in the
control and fear conditions.
Since the emotion induction task asks respondents to write about things that make them feel the
emotion in general, I expect that most subjects should have not mentioned words related to racial or
ethnic minorities at all. In fact, only 12 percent of subjects mention race and immigrant-related words in
their responses. Figure 5 shows the percentage of respondents that mention race and immigrant-related
words across experimental conditions. The figure illustrates that the anger condition has the most
mentions about race and immigration to the emotion induction task. That is, whites in the anger condition
mention race and immigration about 30-percent of the time. For example, one respondent in the anger
condition writes “I get very angry when I hear people discriminating against someone because of their
race.” Another respondent in the anger condition writes in all caps “IMMIGRATION IS ONE THING
THAT MOST AMERICANS ARE MAD ABOUT … SHUT DOWN OUR BORDERS NOW.” These
examples show that whites’ anger is not only directed at immigrants (or blacks) but also the unfair
treatment these groups experience. Furthermore, the figure shows that 9-percent of respondents mention
race and immigration in the fear condition, and no mentions of race and immigration are reported in the
relaxed condition. I ran a simple t-test to see if these differences were statistically significant. Relative to
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the control group, the test showed that the anger group (t=5.05, p ≤ .001) and fear group (t=2.45, p ≤ .05)
discussed race and immigration at a significantly higher rate. There was also a statistically significant
difference between the anger condition and the fear condition (t=2.86, p ≤ .01). Thus, when whites are
asked to write about things that make them angry, in general, it makes thoughts about racial and ethnic
minorities more accessible in memory when compared to feeling fear or relaxed. These results
demonstrate the powerful link between anger and thoughts about out-groups in the minds of whites.
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Figures 6A and 6B:
1992-2004 ANES: Marginal Effects of Anger and Fear on Immigration Policy Opinion as Ethnocentrism Changes for Whites
Note: This figure is based on the results in column 2 of Table 2. The solid black
line is the marginal effect of anger and the shaded grey area is its 95%
confidence interval.
Note: This figure is based on the results in column 2 of Table 2. The solid black
line is the marginal effect of anger and the shaded grey area is its 95%
confidence interval.
The figures show the marginal effects of anger and fear from the probit regression model in column 2 of Table 2. Figure 6A shows that
anger significantly increases opposition to immigration among ethnocentric whites (those scoring at. .2 on the scale and higher). The figure
also shows that anger significantly increases support for immigration among whites that score low in ethnocentrism (those scoring at -.1 on
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the scale and lower). Figure 6B shows that fear has a significant and positive effect on opposition to immigration among whites that score
between 0 and .2 on the ethnocentrism scale.
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