What is it about?
White Americans that experience county-level White declining or Black increase are primed to become more politically extreme. When these citizens are asked to consider national racial demographic changes, they become causally more supportive of antidemocratic ideas.
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Why is it important?
The consistency we find across the variety of studies, span of years, and context lends support to the strength of the idea of 'White fight' that we advance. As we note, this county-level starting point can do well to help identify potential 'hotbeds' of more extreme political activity. Policy makers, scholars, among others can use this to better identify places of extremism. Beyond this, we show the importance of studying the simple consideration of demographic changes. A simple prime that we use, which calls to the consideration of demographic change, works to activate 'White fight.' We differentiate this from elite rhetoric that is intentionally inflammatory.
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This page is a summary of: The importance of local racial demographic changes in democratic erosion in the mass American public, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, November 2025, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2501150122.
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