Book
Race to the Bottom: How Racial Appeals Work in American Politics (University of Chicago Press 2020).
Conventional wisdom suggests that explicit appeals that openly play to negative stereotypes and racism should be ineffective at garnering political support for politicians in the post-civil rights era. Nevertheless, we continue to see politicians appeal to the negative racial attitudes of some White Americans, with varying degrees of success. Race to the Bottom: How Racial Appeals Work in American Politics argues that not only are negative racial appeals more successful than previously thought, but the array of appeals that activate negative racial attitudes are also much larger than previously considered. Relying on a series of survey experiments as well as cases of a wider range of politicians than previously examined, the book demonstrates that many White Americans are unperturbed by negative racial appeals, and that these appeals are more ingrained in American politics than previously thought. Since much of the scholarship to date has focused on the Republican Party’s exploitation of racial division, we have ignored the perverse incentives that exist for white Democratic candidates and black candidates from either major party, to also appeal to negative racial attitudes about blacks for political gain.
Peer-Reviewed Articles
Fenton, Jeron and Stephens-Dougan, LaFleur. "Are Black State Legislators More Responsive to Emails Associated With the NAACP Versus BLM?: A Field Experiment on Black Intragroup Politics" (forthcoming at the Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics).
Stephens-Dougan, LaFleur. (2021) "The Persistence of Racial Cues and Appeals in American Elections." The Annual Review of Political Science.
Stephens-Dougan, LaFleur. (2016) “Priming Racial Resentment Without Stereotypic Cues.” The Journal of Politics.
Stephens-Dougan, LaFleur. (2021) "The Persistence of Racial Cues and Appeals in American Elections." The Annual Review of Political Science.
Stephens-Dougan, LaFleur. (2016) “Priming Racial Resentment Without Stereotypic Cues.” The Journal of Politics.
Working Papers
"Beyond the Pale: Conditional Effect of Messenger Race on Responses to Explicit and Implicit Racial Appeals" (under review)
White Americans' Reactions to Racial Disparities in COVID-19 (under review)
The Electoral Consequences of Anti-Muslim Sentiment (with Ashley Jardina, Duke University) (revise and resubmit at Electoral Studies)
“I Get So Emotional: Race, Gender, and Candidate Evaluations ” (with Andrea Benjamin, University of Oklahoma and Davin Phoenix, University of California at Irvine)
“Racial Appeals and the Differential Role of Individualism Among Blacks and Whites” (with Ashley Jardina, Duke University)
White Americans' Reactions to Racial Disparities in COVID-19 (under review)
The Electoral Consequences of Anti-Muslim Sentiment (with Ashley Jardina, Duke University) (revise and resubmit at Electoral Studies)
“I Get So Emotional: Race, Gender, and Candidate Evaluations ” (with Andrea Benjamin, University of Oklahoma and Davin Phoenix, University of California at Irvine)
“Racial Appeals and the Differential Role of Individualism Among Blacks and Whites” (with Ashley Jardina, Duke University)