How are we doing? Group-based economic assessments and African American political behavior

Using data from the National Black Election Study, this study tests the importance of group-based economic evaluations in driving African American political behavior.1 Group-based evaluations powerfully influence presidential approval and vote choice, even controlling for national and personal evaluations and a conception of “linked fate.” More importantly, group-based assessments exert a significant and independent influence on turnout, the central variable in black electoral politics. The results extend and reconsider the implications of group solidarity as a motivator of black political behavior and suggest that a revision of traditional notions of economic voting is in order, at least for African Americans.

► Group-based economic assessments are more powerful than personal ones in shaping African American vote choice. ► Group-based economic assessments explain African American political attitudes above and beyond personal and national ones. ► Positive evaluations of group well-being actually depress African American turnout, at least under a Republican president. ► All of these effects exist even after controlling for the independent effects of a sense of “linked fate”.