Of course, like all research, there are limitations to these studies. Notably, each is correlational, not causal. In ongoing/future work (stay tuned!), I am using survey experiments to further probe these findings.
This is not to say all White Am. are racist or support for FD is always racial. But, for those who hold these racial attitudes, FD support may be partially strategic, based on the idea that it will unduly limit Black political power via higher perceived rates of Black violence.
Said differently, it is not just that FD punishes violence, but it is perceived as systematically disenfranchising the disliked racial outgroup because that policy is perceived to apply to that group more than the in-group due to greater perceived violence of the out-group.
What do these 3 articles tell us, together? Support for FD may be due to some White Am. disliking/resenting Black Am. (e.g., -affect (S1) & political threat (S3)), so they turn to a policy they think will affect Black Am. more (S2) to limit Black power (S3)/punish Black Am (S1)
(S3) We find that White Am. who think Black Am. have more political influence are more supportive of FD, likely as they see the policy affecting Black Am. more (S2) and they desire to limit the political power of a disliked outgroup (S1).
(S2) I find that White Am. who think Black Am. are more violent (both in absolute terms or relative to White Am. violence) are also more supportive of FD (but not those who think White Am. are (more) violent), as they see the policy as punishing *out-group* deviant behavior.
(S1) We find that negative Black affect and racial resentment increase White Am. support for FD. This occurs as those who dislike or resent Black Am. are more supportive of policies that punish that group.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Across 3 studies, we show how Black affect & resentment (S1), symbolic threat (S2), and political threat (S3) influence support for felon disenfranchisement (FD) among White Am. Indeed, we argue in S3 that these attitudes culminate in *strategic* FD support.
Is support for felon disenfranchisement among some White Americans (Am.) not just racial, but strategically politically so? Culminating results across three studies published by myself and coauthors in the last year, results suggest it may be.
As an Iowan living through this Texas winter weather storm, I’ve never felt more at home. As someone who hates the cold and left Iowa because of the winter, I’ve never wanted to be anywhere else more than I do right now.
This is just a fun little side project for public good that started out as a resource for those in my research design courses. Make sure to cite the original datasets and read all relevant materials. Also, feel free to suggest other datasets be added if not already included!
As the Spring semester kicks off, just a reminder that I have collected over 100 datasets that could be of use to undergrads/grads doing their first quant research projects!
sites.google.com/view/drjosep...
A funny quirk about being a young prof: When I try to make modern references and they fail, I don't look like the older, endearing professor trying to be hip, I look like the young professor who is most definitely not hip.
Hello all! Don't forget that today is the deadline for submitting to the 2025 Election Science, Reform, and Administration Conference! I am on the program committee and happy to answer any questions.
esra-conference.org/2025-confere...
Come check out my presentation, "Political Disenfranchisement? Perceptions of Black Political Power and Support for Felon Disenfranchisement Among White Americans," coauthored with Courtney Juelich and Scott LaCombe, on Saturday (today!), 12:30PM, in San Geronimo Ballroom B
Ever wondered whether people support felon disenfranchisement because they want to limit the political power of others? Well, do I have the paper for you! @spsanews.bsky.social #SPSA2025
I want this cited as my contribution to the paper.
Editors, please stop letting reviewers make claims/request specific citations to the literature in their reviews without requiring they include citations. If I have to have citations to support my paper’s arguments, reviewers should have to have citations to support their critiques.
Super excited to be receiving the CMS Data Innovation Award w/ my awesome coauthor, Rachel Torres!
Using the CMS data, we show racial attitudes influence support for voter qualifications among white Americans!
Thanks to the organizers of the CMS for making the data publicly available!
In the last two weeks, I've had a working paper submitted for review, a paper under review accepted for revise and resubmit, a paper under revise and resubmit accepted for publication, and my co-edited volume published! Head over to josephcoll.com to check out my work!
Does scrolling Bluesky while running your own replication files to ensure they run correctly count as work?
I have officially joined BlueSky! And as my first post, I am excited to announce I received word this week of not one, but two (!) accepted articles at POQ! Great way to end finals week!