Allison Anoll, Ph.D.

allison.p.anoll@vanderbilt.edu

Vanderbilt University

City: Nashville, Tennessee

Country: United States

Website

Research Interests

Political Participation

Race, Ethnicity and Politics

Political Psychology

Countries of Interest

United States

My Research:

Allison Anoll's research focuses on American political behavior. Specifically, Allison studies how social context affect political participation, especially among racial and ethnic minorities.  Allison’s current book project explores how social norms and racial segregation shape the contours of American political participation. Additional work considers how social connections to the carceral state, including having close connections with convicted felons, shape political attitudes and participation.

Publications:

Journal Articles:

(2018) What Makes a Good Neighbor? Race, Place and Norms of Political Participation, American Political Science Review

Social norms are thought to motivate behaviors like political participation, but context should influence both the content and activation of these norms. I show that both race and neighborhood context moderate the social value of political participation in the United States. Using original survey data and a survey experiment, I find that Whites, Blacks, and Latinos not only conceptualize participation differently, but also asymmetrically reward those who are politically active, with minority Americans often providing more social incentives for participation than Whites. I combine this survey data with geographic demography from the American Community Survey and find that neighborhood characteristics outpace individual-level indicators in predicting the social value of political participation. The findings suggest that scholars of political behavior should consider race, place, and social norms when seeking to understand participation in an increasingly diverse America.