RAPID: The Impact of Racially Traumatic Stressful Events on African Americans' Psychological, Physiological and Political Responses

Jackson State University, Jackson MS

Investigators

Abstract

General: The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of intra-racial differences among blacks on their physiological, psychological and political responses to Racially Traumatic Stressful Events (RTSEs). RTSEs are based on analogues consisting of visual imagery of the killings of unarmed blacks by police. The PI creates national model for understanding the effects of black intra-racial attitudes on the political attitudes and behaviors of African Americans. The PI creates two competing frameworks to better explain the impact of traumatic events on physiological responses by controlling for racial solidarity and negative racial attitudes and beliefs. The research diminishes the biases associated with social desirability responses found in explicit measures of the political responses of African Americans. The research uses elite interviews, focus groups, a national survey and a lab experiment to test the contention that the effects of racially traumatic stressful events on political behavior are conditioned by in-group racial and or ethnic attitudes. Technical: The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of intra-racial differences among blacks on their physiological, psychological and political responses to Racially Traumatic Stressful Events (RTSEs). RTSEs are based on analogues consisting of visual imagery of the killings of unarmed blacks by police. A triangulation method is employed to collect qualitative, survey and physiological data. The PI creates two competing frameworks to better explain the impact of traumatic events on physiological responses by controlling for racial solidarity and negative racial attitudes and beliefs (linked fate versus intra-racial difference). The research diminishes the biases associated with social desirability responses found in explicit measures of the political responses of African Americans. The research uses elite interviews, focus groups, a national survey and a lab experiment to test the contention that the effects of racially traumatic stressful events on political behavior are conditioned by in-group racial and or ethnic attitudes. The specific aims are to: 1) explore whether the response to RTSE are episodic or foundations of social and political movements; 2) collect elite interview and survey data to examine the impact of RTSEs on psychological and political attitudes; 3) determine the impact of RTSEs on physiological responses using an experimental research design and 4) explore whether positive-and-negative explicit-and-implicit racial attitudes help to mitigate or exacerbate the political attitudes and political behaviors of African Americans.