研究：种族与性别影响美国人以竞选还是抗议表达政治愤怒

愤怒如何变成行动

政治学家长期关注情绪如何推动政治参与。愤怒常被视为催化剂，促使人采取行动应对感知到的威胁，但人们是否走正式选举渠道，取决于他们是否相信体制会回应自己的声音，即政治效能感。历史上的排斥、持续的歧视与资源获取不均，使不同群体的效能感存在差异，也让他们对政治变革路径的看法不同。

把性别纳入种族差异

以往研究记录了白人与黑人在表达政治愤怒上的差距：白人更多投入选举参与，黑人因历史排斥和对正式体制信任较低，更多转向抗议等非选举方式。新泽西学院政治学者Sara Morell与佛罗里达国际大学的Marzia Oceno认为，这一种族分野遗漏了性别维度，因为黑人女性与白人女性同政治体制的历史关系不同于男性。

两项调查的发现

研究者分析2020年总统选举前后一项涵盖6661名白人及黑人成年人的调查，控制年龄、教育和家庭收入等因素。白人男性愤怒时更可能参与正式选举活动；黑人男性愤怒时选举参与未见上升，甚至更少报告为竞选工作。白人女性和黑人女性愤怒时选举参与均上升，黑人女性报告的愤怒平均水平最高，竞选参与增幅在四组中最大。对白人男性和白人女性而言，愤怒并不预测是否实际投票，研究者推测投票对许多政治活跃者已是基本预期，愤怒更多推动需要更多时间精力的行动。

非选举参与的差异

另一项追踪3529名成年人的小组调查覆盖2020年选举后与2022年中期选举后两个时段。白人男性的愤怒未带来更高的非选举参与，仅在2022年抵制行为上略有增加；黑人男性的反应滞后，2020年不显著，到2022年愤怒者更可能签署请愿和在网上发布政治信息。白人女性在两个时段都较可能将愤怒转化为非选举行动。研究指向黑人女性作为现代选举政治中活跃组织者的核心角色，但结论基于自我报告数据与特定选举周期，尚不能推及所有情境。

When Americans feel angry about the state of the country, their gender and racial identities appear to shape whether they channel that emotion into formal campaigns or street protests. A recent study reveals that angry Black women and white women participate across a wider variety of political avenues than their male counterparts. The research was published in Public Opinion Quarterly.

Political scientists study emotion to understand what drives people to become politically active. Anger often acts as a catalyst. It encourages individuals to take action against perceived threats by volunteering for campaigns, donating money, or attending demonstrations. Emotion bridges the gap between holding an opinion and actually doing something about it.

However, people only turn to formal electoral politics if they believe the system will respond to their voices. Political scientists refer to this belief as political efficacy. Historical barriers, ongoing discrimination, and unequal access to resources mean that different demographic groups experience distinct levels of political efficacy. As a result, groups view the available pathways for political change in fundamentally different ways.

Past research established a gap between how white and Black Americans express political anger. Those earlier studies found that white Americans generally channel their anger into electoral participation, such as campaigning. In contrast, Black Americans often turn toward non-electoral participation, like protesting, largely because of historical exclusion and lower trust in the formal political system.

Sara Morell, a political scientist at The College of New Jersey, and Marzia Oceno, a political scientist at Florida International University, suspected this racial divide missed a piece of the puzzle. They wanted to see how gender overlaps with race to shape political behavior.

Feminist movements and civil rights movements have distinct histories of using protests, boycotts, and campaigns to push for change. Because Black women and white women possess different historical relationships with the political establishment than men, the researchers expected to find distinct patterns in how these groups act when provoked by political events.

To test these expectations, the researchers analyzed data from a large survey conducted around the 2020 presidential election. The sample included 6,661 adults who identified as white or Black and male or female. The survey asked respondents how angry, outraged, or irritated they felt about how things were going in the country. The researchers controlled for factors like age, education, and household income.

The 2020 survey then measured electoral participation. Respondents reported whether they tried to persuade others to vote a certain way, attended online or in-person rallies, or wore political buttons. They also noted if they had worked for a campaign or donated money to a political group. Finally, the survey tracked self-reported voter turnout for the November election.

The researchers found distinct differences in how anger predicted campaign involvement across the four groups. As expected, white men who reported high levels of anger were much more likely to engage in formal electoral activities. They focused on persuading voters, attending online rallies, and donating money. Black men largely did not show increased electoral participation when angry, and were actually less likely to report working for a campaign.

The patterns looked entirely different for women. Both white women and Black women showed higher levels of electoral participation when they felt angry. This suggests that women utilize a broad set of formal political tools when they feel threatened or upset by national conditions.

Black women, in particular, reported the highest average levels of anger in 2020. This intense emotion translated directly into the largest measured increase in campaign engagement among all four groups. Angry Black women were highly mobilized to persuade others, wear political buttons, and work for campaigns. The results point to Black women’s central role as active organizers in modern electoral politics.

For both white men and white women, anger did not predict whether they actually cast a ballot. The researchers suggest this is because voting is a baseline expectation for many politically active people. Anger instead motivates individuals to take on political activities that require more time and effort than the standard act of voting, such as volunteering or donating.

Next, the researchers analyzed a separate large panel survey to measure non-electoral participation. This study tracked 3,529 adults across two periods. The first wave occurred immediately after the 2020 election, and the second wave occurred after the 2022 midterm elections.

This second survey focused on activities outside of formal campaigns. Respondents reported whether they had attended a protest or a political rally. They also indicated if they had signed an online petition, posted a political message online, or boycotted a product for political reasons over the previous year.

Once again, white men followed expected historical patterns. Their anger did not lead to higher rates of non-electoral participation in either 2020 or 2022, aside from a slight increase in boycotting during the 2022 wave. White men typically rely on the formal electoral system, rather than outside pressure, to express their grievances.

Black men showed a delayed response in their non-electoral participation. In 2020, their anger was not statistically significant in predicting protest or petition activity. By 2022, however, angry Black men were substantially more likely to engage in non-electoral activities, primarily by signing petitions and posting political messages online.

Women again showed much broader avenues of engagement. White women were highly likely to translate their anger into non-electoral action during both 2020 and 2022. They frequently signed petitions and boycotted products. During the 2022 wave, which followed the Supreme Court decision overturning federal abortion protections, white women reported the highest levels of anger among all groups and maintained their high rate of non-electoral activity.

For Black women, anger was consistently linked to one specific form of non-electoral action. In both 2020 and 2022, angry Black women were uniquely motivated to attend protests. They were the only group to show a persistent link between anger and physical protesting across both survey waves. This finding aligns with the historical centrality of Black women in civil rights and social justice demonstrations.

The researchers note a few limitations to keep in mind when interpreting these results. The surveys asked respondents about their general anger toward the state of the country, rather than asking them to identify the specific issues making them angry. Because the data lacks this specificity, it is impossible to know exactly which policies or events drove different demographic groups to the streets or the campaign trail.

The lack of issue specificity makes it difficult to explain some unexpected results, such as why Black men’s anger did not lead to higher protest attendance in 2020. That year featured massive nationwide protests against police brutality, an issue with profound relevance to Black men. The researchers suspect that for some groups, anger might need to combine with other psychological factors to trigger physical action. A strong sense of community fate or intense personal interest might be necessary to push an angry individual to join a physical protest.

Future research should investigate whether specific sources of anger change how people choose to participate. The researchers also recommend expanding this intersectional approach to include Hispanic and Asian American populations. Understanding how overlapping identities influence political emotion helps reveal the diverse ways Americans fight for their political interests.

The study, “The Intersectional Anger Gap: How Race and Gender Condition the Impact of Anger on Participation,” was authored by Sara Morell and Marzia Oceno.