Priming with race-typed names and religious concepts have been shown to activate stereotypes and increase prejudice towards out-groups. We examined the effects of name and religious word priming on views of a specific and well-known person, President Barack Obama. We predicted that politically conservative participants primed with President Obama's middle name (Hussein) would rate him more nega...

Would the outcome of the 2008 election have been different if Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, or a past Democratic nominee (like John Kerry or Al Gore) had been the nominee? In this paper we treat the counterfactual model earnestly and compare 33 different presidential elections, some real and some hypothetical, in order to understand how candidate traits and election-level characteristics affec...

The election of the first Black president was a watershed moment in American race relations, and many Obama voters saw their choice as affirming and furthering the dream of racial equality. However, the present study provides evidence that Obama also garnered votes from an unlikely source: those wishing to maintain racial disparities. Data from a longitudinal study of the election suggest that,...

Barack Obama, the first Black-American president, has been widely heralded as a role model for BlackAmericans because he inspires hope. The current study was conducted to assess whether, beyond simply inspiring hope, this ‘‘Obama Effect” has a concrete positive influence on Black-Americans’ academic performance. Over a three-month period we administered a verbal exam to four separate groups of ...

For those who still question the value of new media in public health campaigns, the election of Barack Obama as the 44 president of the United States can be instructive. Obama’s campaign strategy has been heralded for its impressive ability to reach, engage, and inspire supporters. The high level of public involvement was evident in the record numbers of people who volunteered, donated money, a...