A new paper with @epkaufm and George Hawley on the Great Awokening, progressive racial rhetoric, and whether it leads to a backlash among white Americans. We find that talking about white privilege causes a major reduction in support for a politician. 1/n https://psyarxiv.com/uzkvf/ 

We used Kirsten Gillibrand, and had two relevant treatments. To some respondents, she advocated for affirmative action and reparations, while in others she did not. We also had her talk about white privilege or give a more universalist message. 2/n

White Americans became much less likely to support her when she took these progressive positions. The effect is huge, equivalent to a one standard deviation or one point shift to the right on a five-point ideological scale. 3/n

Even more interesting, however, is the fact that while white Americans had a "backlash" against the candidate, they actually became more liberal on the issue of reparations! We believe this shows heterogeneous effects. 4/n

Some white Americans start to hate Democrats more when they take liberal positions on race, but those people are already conservative on those issues. By shifting the Overton window, however, other Americans come to embrace racial liberalism. 5/n

We show why results are unlikely to be driven by social desirability bias. In the aggregate, a racially liberal politician becomes less popular herself but moves the public left. Also weak evidence that talking about white privilege reduces white identity in conservatives. 6/n

We argue that our findings can explain some seemingly contradictory macro-trends in public opinion. We're more polarized than ever on party, but on identity issues conservatives are not actually moving to the right. Polarization remains, but society becomes more liberal. 7/n

Thus, if you're a Democrat, the results suggest that you don't want politicians taking racially liberal positions if your concern is winning elections. If you're an activist trying to change the public conversation, however, you do want your leaders talking like Gillibrand. 8/n

For several decades, conservatives have been winning elections but losing badly on social issues. Pat Buchanan wrote a book called "Conservative Votes, Liberal Victories" back in 1975, and Republicans have had control in Washington more often than not since. 9/n

There are certainly many reasons for this, but our paper at least suggests that part of the reason why is the left has an activist base that with regards to racial and perhaps other issues is willing to sacrifice short-term political gain for long-term societal change. 10/n

Credit to @ZachG932 for his discovery of the Great Awokening, which largely inspired the paper. 11/n