Asian Racialization of U.S. Public Policy: How the “model-minority” myth colors white Americans’ political attitudes toward Asian Americans
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2018
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Haverford College. Department of Political Science
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Thesis
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Award
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eng
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Open Access
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Abstract
This thesis project studies the formation of Americans’ political attitudes under the influence of prominent racial stereotypes. This research examines a new, understudied non-white group and relevant stereotypes: Asian Americans and the model-minority myth (respectively) which labels Asian Americans as high-achieving, economically successful, hard-working, and responsible citizens. I use an original survey experiment to answer the question, “What effects does the ‘model minority’ myth have on the racialization of public policy in the United States and how does this inform white Americans’ attitudes toward immigration, welfare, and education?” Asian Americans are the largest-growing immigrant group in the United States yet are not often found in political discourse regarding immigration policy, regardless also of the fact that 1 in 8 undocumented immigrants are Asian (López et al. 2017). Within this large immigrant group, there are accordingly large inequalities in income and wealth (often separated by ethnicity) yet discussion around welfare is not reflective of this. Instead, the model-minority myth paints Asian Americans as one stereotype, which has harmful effects as it ignores the policy needs of Asian Americans. I use the deservingness criteria and the work ethic theory to measure specific factors that affect political attitude formation. I hypothesize white Americans will have positive attitudes toward Asian immigrants because they are seen as hard-working and high-skilled. Based on attitude, reciprocity, and identity, whites will have positive attitudes toward welfare policy. Whites will have negative attitudes toward Asians on welfare based on need and control because the model-minority myth illustrates Asians as a low-need group with economic success. I gather data from 1,224 respondents through a survey administered via Qualtrics. All participants were recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk, which collected responses nationwide. Survey questions to measure policy attitudes include four-point agree/disagree statements and vignettes where the subject in question was randomized by race. Overall, the data shows white Americans have lots of sympathy for non-white groups they see having a high work ethic. First, respondents generally show most positive responses toward Asian Americans and Asian immigrants relative to the “white” and non-white, non-Asian groups. Second, respondents have significantly more sympathetic attitudes toward Asians the more they view Asians according to the model-minority myth. In other words, the model-minority myth had a significant influence on respondents’ attitudes toward welfare and immigration policies. Although respondents largely agree Asian Americans seem economically successful and have low-need for government aid, they also agreed an Asian mother on welfare was deserving of the government support. The key takeaway of this thesis is that the model minority myth is tangible and has measurable implications for whites’ attitudes pertaining to Asian Americans. In other words, the data support the hypothesis that the model-minority myth holds unique racializing effects on white Americans’ political attitudes. The results from this study can lend to future research about how public media portrayal of different racial groups in America shape the way Americans form attitudes toward certain public policy areas and might influence the way Americans vote for public policies.