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Race, partisanship, and perceptions of inter-minority commonality

ABSTRACT Feelings of commonality are central to the formation of multiracial political coalitions. Despite a fairly voluminous literature on where these feelings come from, however, relatively little is known about how elite messages influence individual-level perceptions of intergroup relations. This oversight is surprising given that so-called “elite opinion” theory has become “virtually orthodoxy” within political science. In order to explore the potential for opinion leadership on perceptions of commonality, this paper employs a survey experiment embedded in the 2010 Cooperative Congressional Election Study. Testing hypotheses derived from elite opinion theory, this paper finds that no one interpretation of elite opinion theory can fully account for perceptions of commonality across racial groups. Scholars of race and ethnic politics would do well in the future, therefore, to acknowledge the complex ways that racial and partisan characteristics condition an individual’s response to elite messages.