Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy

Virtual Issue: The Social Psychology of the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election, October 2010

Elections may be understood not just in terms of their political consequences, but also as large and systematic samples of behavior that reflect on the people of a particular time and place. In the American Presidential election of 2008, this fusion of the political with the psychological took on a particular significance, as the election was contested by women as well as men, and won for the first time by a person of color, Barack Obama. The present collection of seventeen papers examines a number of facets of the social and political psychology of the election, and includes analyses of the continuing significance of race and racism, of sex and sexism, and of cognitive processes in an America divided into Red and Blue. The papers also investigate the roles of emotions such as hope, fear, and existential anxiety, and, finally, some of the ways in which winning, losing, and simply voting can bolster, injure, and inform the self-concept. Taken together, these papers provide a deeper understanding of the American electorate than that afforded by exit polls and news surveys, and illuminate the psychological as well as the political significance of the 2008 Presidential Election.

The Social Psychology of the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election
Kevin Lanning and Geoffrey Maruyama

The Political Psychology of Personal Narrative: The Case of Barack Obama
Phillip L. Hammack

Black and White, or Shades of Gray? Racial Labeling of Barack Obama Predicts Implicit Race Perception
Lori Wu Malahy, Mara Sedlins, Jason Plaks and Yuichi Shoda

Race and Gender in the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election: A Content Analysis of Editorial Cartoons
Eileen L. Zurbriggen and Aurora M. Sherman

Seeing Red (and Blue): Effects of Electoral College Depictions on Political Group Perception
Abraham M. Rutchick, Joshua M. Smyth and Sara Konrath

Same-Race and Same-Gender Voting Preferences and the Role of Perceived Realistic Threat in the Democratic Primaries and Caucuses 2008 Robert Böhm, Friedrich Funke and Nicole S. Harth

Racism, Sexism, and Candidate Evaluations in the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election
Caitlin E. Dwyer, Daniel Stevens, John L. Sullivan and Barbara Allen

Implicit Race Attitudes Predicted Vote in the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election
Anthony G. Greenwald, Colin Tucker Smith, N. Sriram, Yoav Bar-Anan and Brian A. Nosek

Voter Affect and the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election: Hope and Race Mattered
Christopher Finn and Jack Glaser

Yes We Did! Basking in Reflected Glory and Cutting Off Reflected Failure in the 2008 Presidential Election
Chris B. Miller

Rejected by the Nation: The Electoral Defeat of Candidates Included in the Self Is Experienced as Personal Rejection
Steven G. Young, Michael J. Bernstein and Heather M. Claypool

Seeing the Other Side: Reducing Political Partisanship via Self-Affirmation in the 2008 Presidential Election
Kevin R. Binning, David K. Sherman, Geoffrey L. Cohen and Kirsten Heitland

Compassionate Values and Presidential Politics: Mortality Salience, Compassionate Values, and Support for Barack Obama and John McCain in the 2008 Presidential Election
Kenneth E. Vail III, Jamie Arndt, Matt Motyl and Tom Pyszczynski

Beyond Identity Politics: Moral Psychology and the 2008 Democratic Primary
Ravi Iyer, Jesse Graham, Spassena Koleva, Peter Ditto and Jonathan Haidt

Moral and Religious Convictions and Intentions to Vote in the 2008 Presidential Election
G. Scott Morgan, Linda J. Skitka and Daniel C. Wisneski

Efficacy and Estrangement: Effects of Voting
Justin D. Hackett and Allen M. Omoto

Elevating Norm Over Substance: Self-Monitoring as a Predictor of Decision Criteria and Decision Time among Independent Voters
Erik J. Girvan, Jason Weaver and Mark Snyder