Give Us Liberty

On April 22, the NY Times published 7 opinion pieces under the umbrella title:

The Psychology of the 'Birther' Myth

What does it say about the country that 45 percent of Republicans believe Obama is foreign-born? 

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GIVE US LIBERTY WILL PUBLISH EACH OF THESE OPINION PIECES ON SUCCESSIVE DAYS, STARTING TODAY. YOU WILL CLEARLY SEE WHAT WE ARE DEALING WITH ON THE LOONY AND IGNORANT LEFT.  THEIR CONTEMPT FOR THE TRUTH IS BREATHTAKING.

I ENCOURAGE ALL TO TAKE THE TIME TO SEND YOUR COMMENTS TO EACH OF THESE OBOTS AND SET THEM STRAIGHT. WE HAVE RESEARCHED THEIR RESPECTIVE EMAIL ADDRESSES AND THEY ARE POSTED AT THE END OF THEIR OP-ED. 

PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO FIRE OFF AN EMAIL AND GIVE THEM HELL!

WHAT IDIOTS!

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Racial Resentment at Its Root

Updated April 22, 2011

David O. Sears is a Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Political Science at the University of
California, Los Angeles.

DAVID O. SEARS PLAYS THE RACE CARD

Why do so many Republicans believe Obama was not born in the United States, despite all factual evidence? In our 2010 book, “Obama’s Race: The 2008 Election and the Dream of a Post-Racial America,” Michael Tesler and I analyzed the role of racial attitudes in Americans’ voting decisions in 2008, based on two major national surveys with thousands of respondents (the results were almost identical across surveys).

Mainstream media are not considered authoritative sources to most 'birthers,' compared with their own social networks.

Party identification was, as always, the strongest predictor of candidate choice. But race was central to the vote, too. The most powerful form of racial animus in politics today is often called “racial resentment,” as reflected in anger about blacks’ demands, criticism of blacks’ work ethics, and believing that racial discrimination has largely disappeared. Such racial resentments had stronger effects on candidate choice than in any other recent presidential election. Moreover, everything associated with Obama became racialized.
Racial resentment more strongly affected evaluations of his opponents, Hillary Clinton and John McCain, than it had before the campaign or since. And it more strongly affected evaluations of Obama’s issue positions on taxes and health care than it had before. The campaign in 2008 was the most racialized in recent history, despite little explicit reference to it during the campaign.

How is that relevant to the birthers? Consider three powerful principles in political psychology: strong prior attitudes can powerfully influence responses to an unfamiliar issue, especially if authoritative sources associate the issue with such attitudes, and if the new issue is inherently ambiguous.

Party identification and racial resentment are perhaps the two most strongly held contemporary political attitudes. But one might protest, no authoritative sources associate Obama with foreign birth. Wrong. The New York Times and other mainstream media are not considered authoritative sources to most birthers, especially compared with many low-level conservative political operatives, or their like-minded social networks.
If you were a birther, would you trust your neighbor who spends his evenings on the Internet and watching Fox News, or the Times? All of us have heard of forged official documents, from under-aged college students’ faked id’s to illegal aliens’ stolen social security numbers. Why not Obama’s birth certificate?
And Obama’s persona is inherently ambiguous. He is multiracial and did not grow up in a traditional African American community. He is associated with Kenya, Indonesia, Kansas, Hawaii, Columbia and Harvard, not Harlem. No one would doubt that Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton was born in the United States. In our research we found that evaluations of Muslims were powerfully associated with evaluations of Obama, even controlling on racial resentment. We interpreted that as meaning that many see Obama as “other,” like Muslims and other unfamiliar groups.

The birther controversy is further evidence of the uphill road that even the best qualified African Americans have always had to traverse. [emphasis in red added]

EMAIL: sears@psych.ucla.edu