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The Political Behavior of “Unhyphenated Americans”: An Individual‐Level Analysis of Causes and Consequences *
Author(s) -
Knoll Benjamin R.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
social science quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.482
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1540-6237
pISSN - 0038-4941
DOI - 10.1111/ssqu.12285
Subject(s) - voting , voting behavior , politics , identification (biology) , public opinion , multivariate analysis , democracy , race (biology) , social psychology , psychology , test (biology) , political science , demographic economics , sociology , economics , gender studies , statistics , law , botany , mathematics , biology , paleontology
Objectives This analysis seeks to assess the findings of previous research that “unhyphenated Americans” have distinct voting patterns. This analysis also provides an empirical test for various hypotheses about the determinants of unhyphenated self‐identification that have previously been advanced, but not definitely tested, by scholars. Methods Multivariate quantitative analysis of a nationally representative public opinion survey fielded in 2015. Results The results of previous research are not confirmed. Unhyphenated Americans are no more or less likely to vote for either Obama in 2012 or Democratic congressional candidates in 2014 once important demographic and political control variables are accounted for. Also, contrary to most previous research, unhyphenated self‐identification is driven to a large extent by race‐related factors. Conclusion Unhyphenated Americans appear to have distinct political voting patterns at the aggregate level, but this pattern disappears at the individual level of analysis. Further research is called for to better understand the behavior of unhyphenated Americans.