Dangerous Frames: How Ideas about Race and Gender Shape Public Opinion (Studies in Communication, Media, and Public Opinion)

In addition to their obvious roles in American politics, race and gender also work in hidden ways to profoundly influence the way we think—and vote—about a vast array of issues that dont seem related to either category. As Nicholas Winter reveals in Dangerous Frames, politicians and leaders often frame these seemingly unrelated issues in ways that prime audiences to respond not to the policy at hand but instead to the way its presentation resonates with their deeply held beliefs about race and gender. Winter shows, for example, how official rhetoric about welfare and Social Security has tapped into white Americans racial biases to shape their opinions on both issues for the past two decades. Similarly, the way politicians presented health care reform in the 1990s divided Americans along the lines of their attitudes toward gender. Combining cognitive and political psychology with innovative empirical research, Dangerous Frames ultimately illuminates the emotional underpinnings of American politics. 

Nicholas Winter is assistant professor in the Department of Politics at the University of Virginia.

List of Illustrations

List of Tables

Preface

Acknowledgments

1 Race, Gender, and Political Cognition

2 Political Rhetoric Meets Political Psychology: The Process of Group Implication

3 American Race and Gender Schemas

4 Group Implication in the Laboratory

5 Racialization of Welfare and Social Security

6 Gendering of Health Care Reform

7 Race and Gender Frames in American Politics

Appendix 1: Text of Experimental Articles

Appendix 2: Experimental Question Wording

Appendix 3: Measurement of Race and Gender Predispositions

Appendix 4: Race Is Race; Gender Is Gender

Appendix 5: Coefficients for Additional Opinion Models

Notes

References

Index