Resumen de How are we doing?: Group-based economic assessments and African American political behavior

J. Matthew Wilson

• Using data from the National Black Election Study, this study tests the importance of group-based economic evaluations in driving African American political behavior. Group-based evaluations powerfully influence presidential approval and vote choice, even controlling for national and personal evaluations and a conception of “linked fate.” More importantly, group-based assessments exert a significant and independent influence on turnout, the central variable in black electoral politics. The results extend and reconsider the implications of group solidarity as a motivator of black political behavior and suggest that a revision of traditional notions of economic voting is in order, at least for African Americans.