The Origins of our Views
Now that we have characterized some general trends in California public opinion, our next consideration is about their origins. Political science draws on sociology and psychology to develop a research program to address this question. Sociologists understand people as social animals whose thoughts and actions are best understood as shaped by our environment. Hence, our opinions emerge from our interactions with others. This process of learning about politics is called political socialization. Agents of socialization, such as family members, friends, and the media, show us how to understand the political world.
A central premise of political science is that our opinions will be self-interested. To understand why a particular group prefers one policy or another, we should understand how the group will gain. We don't even need to inquire about people's thinking. For example, as income increases, opposition to taxes will increase, as wealthier people will not want to pay more. Lower-income people will favor more government welfare. Students will want more financial aid for college, etc. Of course, the problem with this approach is that we can only engage in limited inferences about a group's opinions from its place in society. Moreover, we are not just members of single groups; our thinking has many influences, and our views may be more complex than a simple economic logic allows. For example, even if I am poor, I may favor low taxes, hoping that when I am wealthy someday, the government will not take so much of my money.
Enter the role of political psychology. Political psychologists seek to use the tools of psychology to understand how people understand and evaluate politics. Instead of inferring opinions from social identity, psychologists gather evidence of how people think through more complex survey questions and open-ended interviews. One prominent approach is cognitive theory, which argues that people organize information using complex cognitive schemas or "mind maps" (Kuklinski 233). We add new information to existing understandings, and if this new information does not necessarily fit with our existing schema, we will likely doubt it. Therefore, public opinion develops from a complex web of social and psychological dynamics. An example from the study of California public opinion illustrates the sociological and psychological approaches.
In the spring of 2021, as the coronavirus pandemic began to wane, families faced a critical educational dilemma. As school partially reopened for in-person instruction, should children return to the classroom or remain at home for online instruction? There was a distinct difference of opinion based on race and ethnicity. According to a USC national poll, 60 percent of Black and Latino parents kept their kids home compared to 30 percent of white parents ("What's Behind the Racial Divide"). This was reflected in the opposition of urban school districts to fully reopening. For example, the Los Angeles teachers' union accused the state government of perpetuating structural racism by promoting a premature reopening before vaccines could be widely administered and COVID-19 infection rates could go down (Mays). In the meantime, rural and suburban districts in California made in-person instruction more widely available, with higher student attendance rates (Jones).
It is not difficult to explain racial and ethnic disparities in opinion. Black and Latino voters were far more concerned about getting sick from the virus and losing work or being unable to pay for necessities (see Table 4.5.1). A UC Berkeley Institute of Government Studies Survey (DiCamillo) showed the following:
"Voters who report the following as "very serious" or "somewhat serious" problems for themselves or their families due to the coronavirus - overall and by race/ethnicity (among California registered voters)
Table \(\PageIndex {1}\):Racial and Ethnic Differences of the Impact of the Coronavirus Pandemic
|
Concern
|
Total
|
White
|
Latino
|
Asian/
Pacific Islanders
|
Black
|
Native
American
|
|
Getting Sick from the Virus
|
66
|
59
|
79
|
66
|
71
|
57
|
|
Not being able to get medical care
|
45
|
34
|
65
|
44
|
43
|
61
|
|
Losing a job
|
40
|
28
|
63
|
39
|
44
|
43
|
In 2020-21, mortality rates caused by the coronavirus were the highest on a per capita basis among Black and Latino residents of California. Therefore, it is reasonable to expect differences in opinions based on differences in ethnic experiences and consequent policy differences among school districts with different demographic populations. Our explanation is based on inference rather than actually investigating people's thinking. It is fundamentally sociological.
Now let's turn to political psychology. To continue with our discussion of coping with the coronavirus pandemic, as the vaccine became widely available in the spring of 2021, public health officials made great efforts to vaccinate as many people as possible. However, vaccination rates varied a great deal based on many factors, including education, income, region of the state, and accessibility of the vaccine. An additional factor that emerged is vaccine hesitancy. Many people were not planning on getting the vaccine for various reasons, including concerns for its safety and efficacy.
In California, among all racial and ethnic groups, African Americans were most hesitant to receive the vaccine (Baldassare May 2021):
Table \(\PageIndex{2}\):Racial and Ethnic Differences in Vaccine Hesitancy April 2021
|
Vaccination
|
All adults
|
African
Americans
|
Asian
Americans
|
Latinos
|
Whites
|
|
Already had vaccine
|
39
|
36
|
46
|
29
|
46
|
|
As soon as it is available
|
26
|
15
|
35
|
31
|
20
|
|
A few weeks after
|
6
|
2
|
4
|
10
|
3
|
|
A few months after
|
9
|
18
|
2
|
7
|
9
|
|
A year or more after
|
7
|
11
|
9
|
11
|
6
|
|
Won't get vaccine
|
12
|
18
|
4
|
12
|
16
|
One factor that is hypothesized to be causing higher levels of vaccine hesitancy among African Americans is the higher level of distrust in health care in general. This distrust is caused by structural discrimination based on race and income (Bazargan). African Americans report lower levels of trust in physicians, worry more about lack of privacy, and are more concerned that they may be the victims of harmful experiments. Studies that show contemporary racial bias in patient treatment show that this distrust is not only the result of historical legacies but remains a current problem. Thus, investigating respondents' underlying trust in the healthcare system is necessary to understand attitudes about the vaccine. This requires the use of political psychology to understand public opinion.
