Which Are
The Ties That Bind?

Individual Preferences for Intersectional
and Substantive Representation

Patrick Kraft

CSIC

Kathy Dolan

UWM

2025-06-28

Who Feels Represented — and Why?

Dyadic

Collective

Substantive

Theory & Literature Review I

Theory & Literature Review II

  • Gap in the literature: Most prior studies only examine representation of specific identity categories in isolation (i.e., gender or race) and/or focus on a specific type of representation (i.e., either dyadic, collective, or substantive representation).

\(\Rightarrow\) We still know relatively little about how overlapping identities matter for representation on different levels.

Study Overview

  • 2022 Cooperative Election Study: a 50,000+ person national stratified sample survey administered by YouGov.
  • Pre-election and post-election wave
    (2022 midterm elections)
  • Group Content:
    Subset of 1000 respondents participating in
    preregistered survey experiment

Find Your Perfect District

[issues] In order to match you with legislative districts, please state how much you agree or disagree with the following statements.

  • Additional tariffs on goods imported from China are an effective strategy to reduce the trade deficit.
  • Maintaining a strong military is one of the most important things our country can do.
  • The United States should ease sanctions against Iran and initiate negotiations for both countries to re-join the Iran Nuclear Accord.
  • Support programs for veterans (e.g., for housing, health care) should be increased.
  • People should only be allowed to purchase firearms after they cleared a background check.
  • Our current laws to protect women against domestic violence are sufficient and do not need to be expanded.
  • Women and men who do the same jobs and have the same qualifications should should be paid equally.
  • Employers should not be required to offer parents paid family leave when they have a child or need to care for a sick child.
  • Women should have the right to have an abortion before fetal viability (within the first 24 weeks).
  • Employment policies should do more to protect people from sexual harassment in the workplace.
  • People who are convicted of one or more serious drug offenses should be subject to mandatory minimum sentences starting at 10 years in prison.
  • Confederate statues are part of history and should remain present in public spaces in this country.
  • Some funding from police departments should be cut and shifted to social services instead.
  • Because of past discrimination, Blacks should be given preference in hiring and promotion.
  • There should be a federal ban on the use of chokeholds by police departments.

A (Visual) Cojoint on Representation

Scenario A

Scenario B

Outcome Measures

[choice] If you had to choose to live in one of the districts displayed above, which one would you choose?

  1. Scenario A
  2. Scenario B

[represented] Imagine you lived in the districts displayed above. Based on the information provided about each lawmaker and state legislature, how represented would you feel in each respective district?

  • Scenario A: (SLIDER 0 - 100)
  • Scenario B: (SLIDER 0 - 100)

Research Question 1

Do different social groups (in terms of race or gender) have diverging preferences for descriptive representation (dyadic or collective) vs. policy representation?

  • H1a: Underrepresented groups (women, Black people)
    \(\rightarrow\) dyadic > collective > policy.
  • H1b: Overrepresented groups (men, white people)
    \(\rightarrow\) policy > collective > dyadic.

RQ1: Results

RQ1: Results

RQ1: Results

Research Question 2

How important is intersectional representation
(i.e., representation in terms of both race and gender)
on the dyadic level and the collective level?

  • H2a: One underrepresented identity
    (white women, Black men)
    \(\rightarrow\) preferences for general diversity in representation
  • H2b: Multiple underrepresented identities
    (Black women)
    \(\rightarrow\) preferences for intersectional representation

RQ2: Results

RQ2: Results

Research Question 3

How do the types of issues impact the relative importance of policy representation?

  • H3a: Focusing on relevant issues (race, gender)
    increases the impact of policy representation among
    underrepresented groups (women, Black people)
  • H3b: Focusing on relevant issues (race, gender)
    decreases the impact of policy representation among
    overrepresented groups (men, white people)

RQ3: Results

RQ3: Results

RQ3: Results

Preliminary Conclusions

  • Overrepresented groups are more responsive to policy overlap, underrepresented groups are more responsive to descriptive representation.1
  • Intersectional representation is complex: (white) women show preferences for general diversity, while (Black) men focus on their own ingroup.2 No evidence that Black women strictly prefer intersectional representation.
  • The types of issues impact the relative importance of policy representation among underrepresented groups.

Next Steps

  • Replication with observational data focused on dyadic representation on the national level in Congress (c.f., English et al. 2019).
  • Examine interactions between issue overlap and descriptive representation. How can representatives use policy positions to appeal to out-group constituents?
  • Condition on policy predisposition and pre-treatment attitudes. Do men reward policy overlap on gender issues while holding conservative views?

Appendix

Replication with Observational Data

Baseline: Continuous Evaluation

Intersectional: Continuous Evaluation

Policy: Continuous Evaluation

Policy & Intersectional: Discrete

Policy & Intersectional: Continuous

Observational: Intersectional Identity

References

Atkeson, Lonna Rae, and Nancy Carrillo. 2007. “More Is Better: The Influence of Collective Female Descriptive Representation on External Efficacy.” Politics & Gender 3(1):79–101.
Barreto, Matt A., Gary M. Segura, and Nathan D. Woods. 2004. “The Mobilizing Effect of Majority–Minority Districts on Latino Turnout.” American Political Science Review 98(1):65–75.
Broockman, David E. 2014. “Do Female Politicians Empower Women to Vote or Run for Office? A Regression Discontinuity Approach.” Electoral Studies 34:190–204.
Costa, Mia, and Brian F. Schaffner. 2018. “How Gender Conditions the Way Citizens Evaluate and Engage with Their Representatives.” Political Research Quarterly 71(1):46–58.
English, Ashley, Kathryn Pearson, and Dara Z. Strolovitch. 2019. “Who Represents Me? Race, Gender, Partisan Congruence, and Representational Alternatives in a Polarized America.” Political Research Quarterly 72(4):785–804.
Lucas, Jennifer C., and Heather Silber Mohamed. 2021. “Gender, Race, Ethnicity, and the Racialization of Attitudes Toward Descriptive Representation.” American Politics Research 49(5):517–33.
Philpot, Tasha S., and Hanes Walton Jr. 2007. “One of Our Own: Black Female Candidates and the Voters Who Support Them.” American Journal of Political Science 51(1):49–62.
West, Emily A. 2017. “Descriptive Representation and Political Efficacy: Evidence from Obama and Clinton.” The Journal of Politics 79(1):351–55.

Footnotes

  1. race: dyadic | gender: collective

  2. Mostly in terms of collective representation