Project One: Black VS.

White Candidate
Submitted by: Matt Monson
March 2, 2015
Political Science 1100, Period 2

Overview:
The research question that my Salt Lake Community College Political
Science course professor gave my group was, Determine whether the race
of a male candidate for U.S. Senator for the State of Utah will affect his
approval rating and favoritism. How my group went about this project was
simple. We were given to surveys that had the qualifications of a fictitious
personage. An article was provided which had information on the following:
his background, education, work experience, community service, and issue
positions. We would each give this article to four people. There are five
people participating in this project, each person was assigned four people to
give the article to which equaled a total of twenty. Along with the article
came a five question survey. After reading the article the people that we give
the surveys to are to fill out those five questions.

After receiving all of the finished surveys, we compiled the information

into charts. Before filling out the questions, each individual was asked to
state their religious affiliation, their gender, and their age group. These were

taken into account when the data was compiled. It was interesting to see the
difference in voting strategies between males and females in which I will
elaborate further in this paper. Some things that may have skewed the
compiled information are, people not taking the survey seriously, if the
surveyor asked whether the candidate was fictitious or not, or if they did not
read through the entire article, to name a few. I believe that any or all of
these problems may have occurred, but I decided to use the data regardless.
I read through the article and did the survey myself so that I could see what
my opinion was. This helped me to relate to the other surveyors and
understand why they would answer specific questions a specific way.

The choice of surveyors differed between each of us that participated

in this activity. For example, I asked my mom, dad, eighteen-year-old sister,
and history teacher to read and fill out the surveys I was assigned to give.
Other people in my group asked random strangers they met at the store. I
assume that all of the individuals that were surveyed were Utahans, but that
could have been a flaw in our survey. If I did this again, I would make sure
that they were currently residents in Utah, because then their opinion would
be more accurate because they want what is best for wherever they live.

Hypothesis:

I hypothesized that not all of the data that we would collect would be
accurate for several reasons that I have listed previously in this paper.
However, if the data that I collected were accurate according the surveyors
true opinion, I believe that a portion of the data would have stated that
people are racist. The problem with this survey is that people do not want to
appear racist. They may think something that is prejudice, but then write
down something else just so they dont look bad. Something that was done
to prevent this was the surveyor did not know that the person wasnt real,
and they did not know that their surveys were being compared to other
surveys with the candidate having a different race.

I also hypothesized that not only would the person base his/her opinion
off of the race of the candidate, but also what the photo looked like. They
answers to their question may have been partially based off of the fact that
the candidate was handsome, dressed nicely, looked too young/old etc. The
first impression is extremely common in our society. Our entire opinion of
someone can be purely off of how they look, and not off of the actions that
they have done (whether they be good or bad.) The reason that people may
base their opinion off of trivial things could be off the fact that they do not
care enough to research the candidate. But, the survey was meant to cure
this specific problem because it did have information on the candidate.

If people are racist, then they will disagree with the survey questions
because the dependent variable is based off of race. If people do not want to
seem racist, then they will not answer accurately according to their true
opinion because they care about what other people think about them. If the
surveyor does not read the information on the article, then they will base it
purely off of the picture, because they do want to read the article. These are
my hypotheses.

Methodology:
The method in which my group decided was the best to find out if
Utahan were prejudice against race in politics was a survey. The survey
included an article that stated the candidates achievements, and showed a
photo of the candidate. Then, there were five questions that were asked
based off of the article and the picture.
The questions were, First: Does he have a sufficient education to be a
United States Senator from Utah? Second: Does he have sufficient work
experience to be a United States Senator from Utah? Third: Does he
demonstrate strong leadership skills? Fourth: Does he have the kinds of life
experiences that will help him understand average Utahans? Fifth: Do you
support more of his policy positions than you oppose?
All of the information on the article was the same including the name,
age, and historical background. The only difference between the two

different kinds of surveys was the picture that portrayed the fictitious
candidate. On type of survey had a picture of a Caucasian male, while the
other had the picture of an African American male. In order to get the most
accurate information possible (unbiased based off of male and female
opinion), a quarter of the surveyors were male and were given the African
American survey, another quarter of the surveyors were male and were
given the Caucasian survey, another quarter of the surveyors were female
and were given the African American surveys, and the last quarter of the
surveyors were female and were given the Caucasian survey.

Results:
The data from the surveys was combined on February the twenty third.
The results were interesting to analyze, and some of the results agreed with
my hypotheses while others did not. For the African American candidate
surveys: Question one seven people agreed and seven people were neutral.
Question two: Four people agreed, for people felt neutral, one person
disagreed, and one person strongly agreed. Question three: five people
agreed, four people felt neutral, and one person strongly agreed. Question
four: six people agreed and four people felt neutral. Question five eight
people agree, one person disagreed, and one person was neutral.
The data for the Caucasian candidate surveys, question one: seven
people agreed and three were neutral. Question two: four people agreed,

three people were neutral, and three people disagreed. Question three: five
people agreed and five were neutral. Question four: five people agreed, three
were neutral, and two people strongly agreed. Question five: four people
agreed, three people were neutral, two people disagreed, and one person
strongly agreed.
This data based off of the surveys shows that more people agreed with
the African American fictitious candidate than with the Caucasian candidate.
I had insufficient information to know whether this was because they were
trying not to be racist, or they put down their true opinion. It is a possibility
that all of the information was a true opinion, but the people who filled out
the survey may have done so differently if they knew it was based off of
race.

Conclusions:
Overall I dont believe this project was as efficient as it could have
been. I did receive twenty different answers for each question, half of those
questions for the African American candidate, half for the Caucasian
candidate. The problem was, I feel that the data may have been skewed
based of the facts that people didnt know that their survey was being based

off of other surveys with a different race of candidate. One of my hypotheses

consisted of the idea that the people filling out the survey would disagree
with the African American not because of his race, but because he looked
very young. I dont believe this was taken into account because the African
American candidate was more agreed with than the Caucasian one.
I also hypothesized that people would not want to look racist so they
would lie on the survey. I dont know if anybody did this because I did not
ask. If I were to do this again, I would ask, If there was a person that was
Caucasian rather than African American would you have chosen the same
answers? (Or vice versa) That way I could tell if the opinion was changed
based off of race, and get more precise data.
I think that religion and what political party the surveyed member were
apart also had say in what was answered on the survey. I would add more
questions dealing with these factors and that would narrow down the data
even more. Im grateful for this project because I learned more about people
opinions towards political representatives, and why people like/dislike them.