🧵 Excited to share our recent work published in Psych Science! We show that talk of anti-Christian bias leads White Christians to perceive anti-White bias & this can be leveraged as a dog whistle by politicians to signal allegiance to Whites. 1/ journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... - ThreadSky

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marahalkire.bsky.social • 342 days ago

🧵 Excited to share our recent work published in Psych Science! We show that talk of anti-Christian bias leads White Christians to perceive anti-White bias & this can be leveraged as a dog whistle by politicians to signal allegiance to Whites. 1/ https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09567976241236162

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marahalkire.bsky.social•342 days ago

In experiments 1-2, we find when White (but not Black) Christians read messages about anti-Christian bias, they were more likely to perceive anti-White bias. We then wondered whether politicians could leverage this linkage to signal White allyship in a palatable way (read: racial dog whistle). 2/

marahalkire.bsky.social•342 days ago

In our 3rd experiment, White Christians who read about a politician claiming they’d fight against anti-Christian bias inferred the politician would also fight against anti-White bias yet was less offensive than a politician who claimed they’d fight against anti-White bias. 3/

marahalkire.bsky.social•342 days ago

In our 4th experiment, Black Christians also perceived a politician who claimed they’d fight against anti-Christian bias as more willing to fight for White people, less willing to fight for Black people, and less offensive than one explicitly stating they'd fight against anti-White bias. 4/

marahalkire.bsky.social•342 days ago

In sum, results suggest politicians can strategically use claims of widespread anti-Christian persecution ("war on Christians!") as a potent yet palatable way to signal to a White Christian audience that *Whites* are under attack & these same politicians will be their defense. 5/

marahalkire.bsky.social•342 days ago

This research was a team effort amongst Chad Miller (SPIA lab graduate student), @mikeypasek.bsky.social , Clara Wilkins, Sam Perry, and myself. Email me if you'd like access to the full article, and I'll send you a pdf. 6/

marahalkire.bsky.social•342 days ago

Thanks to Sam Perry for writing and sharing the original version of this thread over on Twitter/X!
7/end

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