American Politics & Political Behavior & Race and Ethnic Politics
Email: eugeniaq@umich.edu
Dissertation Title: “Prosocial Politics: How Americans' Desire to Help Shapes Political Action”
Committee: Ted Brader (co-chair), Vince Hutchings (co-chair), Arthur Lupia, Mara Ostfeld
Summary: I am a political psychologist, with expertise in race and ethnic politics, Latino politics, and mass political behavior in the United States. My research explores the psychological processes that facilitate political participation, especially among individuals who are the least likely to participate.
Existing models of political behavior offer explanations for participation among individuals who are well resourced and stand to benefit or suffer from political changes. However, these models fail to explain high rates of political engagement among individuals who lack resources, or are not personally impacted by politics. What drives participation among such individuals? In my dissertation project, Prosocial Politics: How Americans’ Desire to Help Shape Political Action, I offer a novel theoretical framework which clarifies and explains the importance of the desire to help others as a consequential behavioral motivation.
The project features several studies which establish the relationship between prosociality and politics, and its consequences. I validate and provide evidence of how prosociality drives political action through the measure of prosocial political preferences, a novel six-item survey scale. In three large national surveys with a total of 5,465 respondents, I find strong correlations between prosocial political preferences and greater intentions to participate in politics. Prosocial political preferences are evenly distributed across parties, gender categories, race and ethnic groups, and ideology. The measure not only positively predicts willingness to participate politically, but outpaces other common predictors of political participation, such as age, educational attainment, and partisan identity strength. In two separate surveys, I also find evidence of prosocial political preferences boosting participation intentions among Latine and Black respondents at greater rates than White respondents.
My other research projects include studies of political socialization and racial attitudes among U.S. based Latinos, and an investigation of Americans’ support for tax policies which eliminate tax avoidance among the ultra-wealthy. My work has been featured in Politics, Groups and Identities, several edited book chapters, and in other online venues.
For more information: https://www.eugeniaquintanilla.com/
