Benefit or Backlash? Examining the effect of contentious claims of antisemitism
Abstract
Following Hamas’ October 7th attacks and subsequent Israeli reprisals in Gaza, antisemitism and Islamophobia are once again top of mind for people, news organizations, and policy makers. Because the attacks rendered issues surrounding Israel’s claims to its land salient, accusations of antisemitism and anti-Zionism have become more contentious. We investigate whether labeling criticism of Israel as antisemitic leads people to discount how significant a problem they believe antisemitism to be. Specifically, when people are exposed to a contentious allegation of antisemitism that they do not believe is antisemitic, do they take subsequent instances of antisemitism less seriously than they would have if they had not been exposed to that allegation? Our survey experiment isolates the impact of exposure to a contentious accusation of antisemitism on how seriously people consider antisemitism to be a problem. We also test secondary hypotheses, as well as several potential mechanisms. The results of this study are significant for scholars of race and racism, practitioners who combat prejudice, and policymakers, given the recent push to expand the definition of antisemitism at the federal level. We hope our findings can be considered by prejudice reduction organizations to ensure that their efforts do not end up exacerbating hate.
Field
Political Science
Team
Emily Ortiz; Dr. Salma Mousa, Josh Goetz, Connor Warshauer, Ananya Hariharan, Clayton Becker, Grant Baldwin
Emily Ortiz
Emily Ortiz is a third-year PhD student in Political Science at UCLA. Her specialization is in Race and Ethnic Politics, with research interests in the areas of Latino politics, political conservative identity, and political psychology. Emily’s work focuses on the formation of conservative political identity among American Latinos and the psychological mechanisms involved in this process. Emily is currently working on projects examining POC solidarity, transphobia in India, and antisemitism in the United States. Her work is being supported by the UCLA Initiative to Study Hate and the Luskin Center for History and Policy. Prior to UCLA, Emily attended Florida State University, where she earned a degree in Political Science with a minor in Sociology in 2022.
Josh Goetz
Josh Goetz is a third-year PhD student in Political Science at UCLA. His specialization is in Comparative Politics, with research interests in the areas of prejudice reduction, intergroup relations, and political behavior. In particular, Josh focuses on how forms of prejudice arise and what can be done to mitigate them. He is currently working on projects examining antisemitism and Islamophobia in the United States, transphobia in India, and post-genocide reconciliation in Rwanda. Josh’s work is supported by the Initiative to Study Hate, the Luskin Center for History and Policy, and the Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies. Before coming to UCLA, Josh attended The Ohio State University, where he earned a dual degree in Political Science and Chemical Engineering in 2022.
Ananya L. Hariharan
Ananya L. Hariharan (she/her) is a third-year PhD student in Political Science. Her subfield is Race, Ethnicity, and Politics and her broad research interests include voting access, election law, lobbying, and campaign finance. Ananya primarily studies the downstream effects of election law-related lobbying on race-based disparities in voting access, though her research portfolio is broad – she’s currently also working on projects related to antisemitism, the criminalization of the hijra during the British Raj, and the relationship between voting and Latinos’ health outcomes. She is an affiliate of UCLA’s Voting Rights Project and her research has been supported by UCLA’s Initiative to Study Hate and the Luskin Center for History and Policy. Prior to graduate school, Ananya earned her BA in Political Science at Wellesley College and worked at the Urban Institute, where she helped conduct evaluations of community and economic development policies.
Clayton Becker
Clayton Becker is a third-year PhD student in Political Science at UCLA studying American Politics and methods. His research primarily focuses on public opinion, state and local politics, with a particular emphasis on the politics of housing, and interest groups. In addition to the work funded by the ISH, he is presently at work on papers related to the impacts of gentrification on racial attitudes, race as a motivating factor in opposition to new housing, eviction’s impact on voter turnout, union membership’s impact on policy preferences, and voter inferences about candidates for public office. Prior to beginning his PhD at UCLA, Clayton graduated in 2020 from the Dual BA Program between Columbia University and SciencesPo, France’s leading social science university, with degrees in Economics-Political Science and International Law.
Grant Baldwin
E. Grant Baldwin is a third-year PhD student studying Political Science at UCLA. Specifically, he studies American politics, research methods, and racial and ethnic politics (REP). This year he and his collaborators have received funding from the Initiative to Study Hate to study perceptions of antisemitism in the United States. His broader research agenda explores how the rules that govern elections and representation in state and local governments affect who sits in office and what types of policies they pursue. Some current research projects study racialized voter behavior in nonpartisan local elections and policy representation in small cities/towns. Prior to attending UCLA, Grant earned his B.A. in Political Science from Brigham Young University.