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ObjectiveWe test one untested influence on whether Hispanics will assimilate into American society in a "straight line" or remain "segmented." The type of assimilation hinges on both how non‐Hispanics treat Hispanics and whether Hispanics desire assimilation. We argue that these behaviors depend on the social construction of Hispanics' identity, which in turn may depend in part on their skin tone.MethodsWe compare these two theoretical competing models in two ways. First, to a nationally representative sample, we randomly assign four images of Hispanic males who are two standard deviations apart in skin tone and gauge respondents' social acceptance of them. Second, using objective skin‐tone measures from the 2012 ANES oversample of Hispanics, we determine if skin tone correlates with beliefs over assimilation.ResultsFor the experimental evidence, we discover that whites and blacks do not discriminate across this range of skin tone for Hispanics. For the ANES data, we find no evidence that skin tone affects Hispanics willingness to assimilate into America.ConclusionThus, the typical skin tones of Hispanics do not affect the assimilation ideas of either non‐Hispanics or Hispanics.

AbstractWe research the political impact of how users access the Internet. Recent research suggests that Internet usage may promote political participation. Internet usage is proposed to be beneficial because it increases activity in diverse politicized social networks and through greater access to information. Even though Internet usage may begin as a non-political activity, we outline several reasons to believe that it may spark later political participation. This impact, however, is likely to be non-existent in new forms of Internet browsing such as through mobile phones, where users do less full-scale browsing. The more difficult browsing interface of mobile phones reduces activity in chat rooms and in-depth browsing of online sources of information which promote participation. To test these ideas, we use nationally representative survey data from Japan, a country which has more pronounced usage of mobile phone browsing. Using a Seemingly Unrelated Regression Model, we also show that the chief determinants of using PC's over mobile phones for Internet browsing are age and education. We then show that PC-based Internet activity correlates with increased political participation, but mobile phone usage correlates with less participation.

ObjectivesWe research the political impact of human social interaction. Some scholars suggest that recreational or other informal interaction may promote political participation. Informal recreational interaction is proposed to be beneficial because it increases activity in more serious political participation.MethodsTo test these ideas, we use new nationally representative survey data from seven East Asian nations using Poisson regression models.ResultsWe show that informal social interaction and nonpolitical voluntary activity do increase political participation.ConclusionsEven though the recreation may begin as a nonpolitical activity, we show that it may spark later political participation.

Based on prior research on political business cycles, we investigate the manipulation of state budgets in battleground states. The state-based winner-take-all Electoral College system in the United States makes certain states extremely politicized during presidential elections. We hypothesize that budgets will target specific groups of swing voters in these battleground states. We test the impact of competitive state status in presidential elections on state budgets from 1982 to 2005 by creating a cross-sectional time-series regression model of state budget priorities from Jacoby and Schneider. While controlling for known determinants of budgets, we find strong support for our hypothesis.

Based on prior research on political business cycles, we investigate the manipulation of state budgets in battleground states. The state-based winner-take-all Electoral College system in the United States makes certain states extremely politicized during presidential elections. We hypothesize that budgets will target specific groups of swing voters in these battleground states. We test the impact of competitive state status in presidential elections on state budgets from 1982 to 2005 by creating a cross-sectional time-series regression model of state budget priorities from Jacoby and Schneider. While controlling for known determinants of budgets, we find strong support for our hypothesis. Adapted from the source document.

AbstractGoogle Insights for Search provides a new and rich data source for political scientists, which may be particularly useful for state politics scholars. We outline the prior uses of Google Insights for Search in social and health sciences, explain the data-generating process, and test for the first time the validity of this data for state politics research. Our empirical test of validity shows that Google searches for ballot measures' names and topics in state one week before the 2008 Presidential election correlate with actual participation on those ballot measures. This demonstrates that the more Internet searches there were for a ballot measure, the less likely voters were to rolloff (not answering the question), and establishes the construct validity for this data for one important topic in state politics research. We also outline the limitations to this data source.

Are poor whites less likely to vote correctly when they vote for Republican presidential candidates? The rationality of poor white voters is perennially debated in American politics. To date, scholars and journalists have weighed in on this debate without using any objective measure of voter preferences, nor has anyone tested the extent to which those preferences match voters' behavior in the ballot booth. To adjudicate this debate, we use Lau and Redlawsk's voting correctly data from 1972 to 2008 to test the popular hypothesis that poor white voters, specifically, vote against their interests by voting for Republican presidential candidates. A series of probit estimations demonstrate that, while poor whites are less likely to vote correctly than those who are not poor whites, there is no relationship between poor whites and voting correctly for Republican or Democratic candidates independently. This suggests that the longstanding debate about poor white voting for Republican candidates is much ado about little and obscures the larger debate about all voters being able to vote in line with their preferences more generally.