Political scientists Alexander Kuo, Neil Malhotra and Cecilia Hyunjung Mo write: In

Political scientists Alexander Kuo, Neil Malhotra and Cecilia Hyunjung Mo write:

In the 2012 presidential election, Barack Obama won 73 percent of the Asian American vote, exceeding his support among Hispanics (71 percent) and women (55 percent). This striking statistic has caused a great deal of consternation among Republicans, who seem generally mystified as to what they might be doing wrong. . . . The GOP’s confusion comes not only because, in 1992, Bill Clinton captured just 36 percent of the Asian American vote. It is also because Asian Americans as a group have certain characteristics that would ordinarily predict a Republican political affiliation, most strikingly their level of income, which on average, is higher than any other ethnic group in the United States. . . .

They have two explanations, each of which they studied quantitatively:

First, there’s race. The feeling of social exclusion stemming from their ethnic background might push Asian Americans away from the Republican Party. . . . we conducted an experiment in a university laboratory in which both Asian Americans and white individuals were brought into the lab, and half of them were randomly subjected to a seemingly innocuous statement, such as being asked “Where were you born?” or being told “You speak good English.” . . . Among those who did not receive this message, 76 percent of respondents identified as Democrats . . .However, when prompted with the racial microaggression, 87 percent identified as Democrats . . . This is a very large increase given how innocuous the message was, and the fact that it was only mentioned once.

Interesting. It’s great to move from hypothesizing to measurement. I’d like to see a replication of this study. It’s not that I don’t believe it, it’s just that it’s easy enough to do a quick psychology experiment, and without a replication there’s always a nagging worry that the effect is just an artifact. Don’t get me wrong — I like their study and think their results support their general claims, I’d just like to see some confirmation.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2014/03/19/why-do-asian-americans-mostly-vote-for-democrats/