The impact of outgroup trust on voting behavior in ethnically salient contexts

Shin, Hyo-Won

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/121303 Copy

Description

Title

The impact of outgroup trust on voting behavior in ethnically salient contexts

Author(s)

Shin, Hyo-Won

Issue Date

2023-07-10

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

• Winters, Matthew S.
• Wong, Cara

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

• Winters, Matthew S.
• Wong, Cara

Committee Member(s)

• Rudolph, Thomas J.
• Livny, Avital

Department of Study

Political Science

Discipline

Political Science

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

• Social capital
• outgroup trust
• voting behavior
• ethnic politics
• Southeast Asia

Abstract

Scholars of ethnic politics argue that voting, a key feature of democracy, may actually hinder democratic consolidation when citizens vote along ethnic lines. This project considers how ethnic voting might be overcome and individuals encouraged to vote across ethnic lines by examining the role of outgroup trust. I integrate theories of social trust with the ethnic voting scholarship and ask, in contexts where ethnicity is a salient identity, can an increase in trust across ethnic groups affect individuals’ voting behavior, and if so, through what mechanisms does trust motivate people to engaging in cross-ethnic voting? Using secondary data, I find that, in sub-Saharan Africa, outgroup trust is a significant predictor of cross-ethnic voting. While this correlation is present across both ethnic majority and minority group members, the marginal effect is greater among ethnic minority group members. I then test for the effect of outgroup trust on cross-ethnic voting using an imagined intergroup contact stimulus embedded in survey experiments conducted among convenience samples of undergraduate students in the U.S., Myanmar migrants in the U.S., and Myanmar migrants in Thailand. I find evidence for an indirect effect of imagined intergroup contact on cross-ethnic voting via an increase in outgroup trust among ethnic minority undergraduate students, Myanmar migrants from the ethnic majority group living in the United States, and Myanmar migrants with high levels of ethnic salience living in Thailand. These results can be interpreted as outgroup trust being of greater importance to those whose ethnic status is unstable and weak. Lastly, I test for the mechanisms through which outgroup trust leads to cross-ethnic voting using survey experimental data among Myanmar migrants in Thailand. Looking at a network mechanism, an information receptivity mechanism, and a collective action mechanism, I do not find support for any of the three mechanisms.

Graduation Semester

2023-08

Type of Resource

Thesis

Handle URL

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/121303

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2023 Hyo-Won Shin

Owning Collections