ABSTRACT

With great regularity, celebrities add their voices to the political debates that shape our future. One celebrity who has added his voice to the conversation about the status of African Americans in modern society is NBA superstar LeBron James. Our research examines how James’s standing on the issue of race is shaped by individuals’ relationships with him as well as current events involving James himself. Via a survey experiment in which some respondents are given information about hypothetical activism and real-world motivations underlying it, we find that favorability helps explain which individuals feel James is a major player on the issue of race. However, recent events like critiques from partisan opponents and being the victim of race-based crime did little to boost or undermine James’s standing.

摘要

名人经常在塑造我们未来的政治辩论中发出自己的声音。NBA 巨星勒布朗·詹姆斯是一位参与有关非裔美国人在现代社会地位的对话的名人。我们的研究探讨了詹姆斯在种族问题上的立场如何受到个人与他的关系以及涉及詹姆斯本人的当前事件的影响。通过一项调查实验，向一些受访者提供有关假设的激进主义及其背后的现实世界动机的信息，我们发现好感度有助于解释哪些人认为詹姆斯是种族问题上的主要参与者。然而，最近发生的事件，例如来自党派对手的批评以及成为基于种族的犯罪的受害者，对提高或削弱詹姆斯的地位几乎没有帮助。