Black = Liberal? Social Group Categories are Imbued with Ideological Meaning, but Some More Than Others

Abstract

We studied the extent to which various groups are imbued with inherent ideological meaning as well as the consequences of inherent ideological meaning on patterns of prejudice and willingness to vote. Across all three studies we found that social groups do in fact hold inherent ideological meaning. In studies 2 and 3 we found that some groups hold more ideological meaning than others, and that in accordance with the ideological conflict hypothesis (ICH), liberals and conservatives are similarly prejudiced against groups perceived to hold values that are ideologically inconsistent with their own.