Rachel Hair

Project One
Overview
The main purpose of this assignment was to compare the voters' approvals of candidates that
have different characteristics. The candidates were supposedly running to be a Senator from
Utah. The characteristics of the candidates were: sexual orientation, gender, and race. My group
studied how voter approval would be affected by the candidate's race. To study this, we had two
groups of surveys. The only difference between the surveys was the picture of the candidate; one
survey had a picture of a white man, and the other survey had a picture of a black man. The
information about the person was kept identical. Other information on the surveys included the
candidate's background, work experience, education, community service, and issue positions.
My subgroup had surveys with a white man. After reading the information about the candidate,
the people being surveyed had a section to complete about themselves and a section to complete
about the candidate. The personal information consisted of their own religious affiliation,
gender, and age group. Next, they had to decide if they strongly agreed, agreed, neutral,
disagreed, or strongly disagreed with 5 specified statements. The statements asked about the
voter's opinion concerning the candidate having enough education and work experience to be a
senator, whether he seems to demonstrate leadership, if he has life experiences that would give
him enough knowledge to understand the average Utahan, and if they support his positions more
than they oppose them. For the final question, we had the person being surveyed identify what
political party they thought this man affiliated with. After the person filled out the survey, we
were asked to write notes about the person on the back of the paper, such as their reactions.

Hypothesis
As a group, we discussed what we supposed our results would be. Our hypothesis had several
aspects:

There would be no difference in the data between genders concerning their approval of

the white candidate and the black candidate.

There would be a greater disparity between white candidate approval and black candidate
approval with greater age. The younger the person, the closer the data would be between
the white and black candidate. Specifically, people under 40 would be more accepting of
the black candidate than those over 40.

We formed our hypotheses based on several things. First, we thought that there would be no
difference in genders because of the similar culture. There are no differences in how males and
females are taught, or in the environment they live in. Therefore, we thought that no differences
would be found in the data between males and females.

Second, we discussed as a group how more tolerant and accepting younger generations are
concerning race than older generations. Some shared personal experiences of racism or racist
comments that have been made by grandparents. These stories were not unique to one person,
but it was find that most people in the group shared similar experience with someone in the older
generations. The younger generations, specifically the generations under 40 years old, seem to
be more accepting of races. This is evident in the election of our current President, Barrack
Obama. Similarly, Mia Love, a black woman, was elected as a representative from Utah to serve
in Congress. These two events seem to show the growing acceptance of people of color holding
important positions in our government.
Methodology

My group had a difficult time agreeing on a set method for surveying. We decided that we
would go to areas with more diversity. A few of us went to Wal-Mart while others went to other
public places. We had samples from a variety of places around the city. Our results are mostly
only pertinent for South Jordan because that is where the majority of our survey pool was from.
We tried to get a range of opinions by asking people in a variety of age groups and those who
appeared to be of different religions than the prominent one in this city. However, our efforts
were not enough. The single mother wearing little clothing and an accent said she was part of
the prominent religion. The man with spikes all over his head that was frantically searching the
rack for a shirt that would match his hat and shoes also said he was affiliated with the prominent
religion. If anything, I learned an important lesson: people are not what they appear to be on the
outside.
One interesting similarity between many of the people who filled out the survey was the
question, "How long is this going to take?" Because of our fast-paced society, many people
didn't seem to read all of the material. One girl said the man sounded familiar, and he got many
high ratings simply because the information said he had some association with Taylorsville.
My group chose to ask the question, "What political party does this man affiliate with?" Most
people thought he was a democrat. After asking one woman that question, she said "Obama
care? He must be Democrat!" I think it would have been interesting to have also asked what
political party they supported to see if they still approved of the man and his policies without the
title and the connotation of "Democrat" or "Republican" or "Federalist." I also think the results
would have been different if I had asked what political party he belonged to first, just because the
political party title can sometimes make people decide right then if they agree or disagree with
him, regardless of his background or policy proposals.

Results
The results were different than my group had hypothesized.

To better analyze the results, I

made a scoring system to understand the voter's overall approval and agreement with the
candidate. "Strongly Agree" was 1 point, "Agree" was 2 points, all the way to "Strongly
Disagree" being 5 points. We added the entire question scoring up to a grand total for the voter.
The higher the number, the less the surveyed person agreed with the candidate. Whereas, the
lower the score, the more approval. We then compiled those scores and put them into two
categories: male and female, and age group. What we found was interesting. The age groups
with the most approval overall, black and white were the people from 31-40 years old. The least
general approval was the less than 21 year old survey takers and the 51-60 year old survey
takers. However, contrary to our hypothesis, the average approval for all the age groups was the
same for the black candidate and the white candidate. The results were within 0.04 points of each
other. We had supposed that the older age groups would be more against the black candidate,
which would then make the overall approval with all age groups more different. Our next
results, however, prove interesting also. The male's average acceptance overall (with both the
black and white candidate), was within 0.5 points of the female's overage acceptance of the
candidates. However, the combined male and female approval of the black candidate was largely
different than the combined male and female approval of the white candidate! The difference
was almost 3 points! The black candidate was less agreed with than the white candidate. The
difference wasn't in the average acceptance with age groups, but between the genders!
Conclusions and Suggestions for Further Research

I can't help but wonder if the results would have been different if we had a more even
representation of many different religions.

Our results consisted of 83.3% of the people

surveyed to be affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

I also think our results would have been more even if we selected data to have an equal number
of all age groups. Using the average of the results made it easier to compare data and make it
more accurate. We had a significantly fewer amount of surveys from the age groups of 51-60
year olds and the 21-30 year olds. I also wished we had used data with the same amount of
males and females to get more accurate results.

Some other suggestions fall under the category of "Methodology." There are many effective
methods for collecting completely random results. This can be anywhere from going to a
neighborhood and asking every third house to fill out a survey, but the results could differ
depending on neighborhood. Another method is to stand outside of a store or entrance to a
general store and ask every fourth person that exits. With our surveys, we asked people who we
thought looked more out of the ordinary rather than asking randomly.

Group coordination is the final thing that could have been better. It is difficult to rely on other
people. The other half of your group with the different candidate should be contacted and
checked up with as much as one's own group. It is easier to set a day and a place and expect both
halves of the group to be there to be sure everyone is surveying in a similar method. Sharing
data can also be a difficult task. Beforehand, make sure every single person understands the
expectations, due dates, and the student question. Many survey takers would not ask for the

question if they were not told what it was before, so it could also be a good idea to add the
question to the survey before printing and distributing it.