The effect of Spanish on Republicans

*Fascinating, this verifies what many of us knew to be true: “For Democrats, it made no significant difference which version of the clip they viewed; but Republicans exposed to Spanish or a Spanish accent were significantly more likely to strongly oppose a pathway to citizenship.” VL

By Lisa Gray, Aurora Losada, Álvaro Ortiz, and Olivia P. Tallet, The Houston Chronicle

How do Anglo voters react to the presence of Spanish in their everyday lives? That question — of obvious interest in Houston and Texas — was the subject of a recent experiment by political researcher Daniel J. Hopkins, of Georgetown University’s government department.

Hopkins showed a news clip about immigration to roughly 1,700 non-Hispanic whites. Some saw the clip with a voiceover in fluent English; some saw it with accented English; and some saw it in Spanish. All three videos had English subtitles.

Afterward, viewers responded to a survey that included this question: “Do you support or oppose a national policy of allowing illegal immigrants already living in the United States for a number of years to stay in this country permanently and earn U.S. citizenship?”

The results, recently published in the journal “Political Communication,” are fascinating.

Click HERE to read the full story.

[Photo by The Texas Tribune/Flicr]

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