How Do Social and Economic Ideology Affect Reactions to Racial Equity Language?
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Key Findings
- Using the “structural racism” term or definition from our What Shapes Health and Well-Being survey may have had the unintended consequence of alienating leaders across the ideological spectrum.
- Respondent reactions to survey language differed by respondent ideology, meaning that the racial equity language in our What Shapes Health and Well-Being survey that we tested may be liberally biased.
- The social justice language with no mention of race may have been more effective than the racial equity language for engaging leaders across the ideological spectrum with the overall objective of ensuring that all people have a fair opportunity to be as healthy as possible.
The What Shapes Health and Well-Being Survey explores how state and local leaders view, understand, and talk about the factors affecting health and well-being in their communities. Supplementing this survey, we conducted a study with an online population panel in summer 2021 and analyzed findings from 1,004 respondents to learn how economic and social ideology affect reactions to racial equity and social justice language. This brief presents the main findings from the study. This work was supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and conducted by Mathematica.
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