UW News featured new research from Marah Al-Kire and Clara Wilkins on how claims of anti-Christian bias can serve as racial dog whistles
The results of a new University of Washington study suggest that talking about anti-Christian bias can provide a more palatable way for politicians to signal allegiance to white people. To learn more, UW News spoke with corresponding authors Clara Wilkins, associate professor of psychology, and Marah Al-Kire, postdoctoral researcher in psychology, about their work.
The research study, published in the journal Psychological Science (Association for Psychological Science), found that white and Black Christians perceived a politician concerned about anti-Christian bias as caring more about anti-white bias, being more willing to fight for white people and as less offensive than one concerned about anti-white bias. Black, but not white, Christians saw a politician distressed by anti-Christian bias as less likely to fight for Black people.
The team also found that reading about anti-Christian bias led white Christians — but not Black Christians — to perceive more anti-white bias. Together, these results suggest that talking about anti-Christian bias can provide a more palatable way for politicians to signal allegiance to white people.
Read the UW News Q&A here: https://www.washington.edu/news/2024/04/15/qa-how-claims-of-anti-christian-bias-can-serve-as-racial-dog-whistles/
Access the full-text article here: https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976241236162
Congrats to contributing authors: Chad Miller (UW Psychology), Michael Pasek (Dept of Psychology, University of Illinois Chicago), and Samuel Perry (Dept of Sociology, University of Oklahoma).