U.S. Landmark Names Study

2023-07-07

2024-12-31

Surveys 1 and 2: Attitude towards Native American sovereignty; Attitude towards US-Native American treaties; Attitude towards appropriation of Native American representation

Survey 2: Clicking on links for landmark name-change petitions and for information about honor taxes

Attitudes towards Native American Sovereignty: sum of six Likert scale questions about support for Native American sovereignty
Attitudes towards US-Native American Treaties: sum of three Likert scale questions about support for the U.S. abiding by treaties with Native American tribes
Attitudes towards appropriation of Native American representation: sum of five Likert scale questions about the acceptability of non-Native people using Native imagery (for example, is it acceptable for a non-Native person to dress as a Native American for Halloween).
Likert scale quantified by: strongly disagree = -2, disagree = -1, neutral = 0, agree = 1, strongly agree = 2

Clicking on links: Respondents will receive information about specific ongoing efforts to change landmark names, and will be provided with links to sign petitions in support of those name changes. Respondents will also receive information about honor taxes, and will be provided links to learn more about how to pay them or set up honor taxes in their area. The outcome will be whether or not they click on the provided links.

Survey 1: Beliefs about Native American representation in United States government; Beliefs about Native American representation in the U.S. population

Survey 2: Subjective beliefs about socio-economic status and cultural status

Survey 1: Respondents will guess the percentage identifying with racial categories of U.S. citizens, citizens within their own state, representatives in the U.S. Congress, and representatives in their state senate.

Survey 2: Subjective beliefs about status: I will use the MacArthur Scale of Subjective Social Status to understand participants beliefs about their societal rank relative to the people "that have the most money, the highest amount of schooling, and the best jobs" now, and where they believe they will be in 10 years. I will also modify the standard question to understand their beliefs about their cultural status, asking where they believe they rank relative to the people "who receive the most respect and appreciation, whose cultures are the most admired, and who have the most esteemed voices in society" now, and where they believe they will be in 10 years.

Survey 1: Participants will take a 15-minute survey with an embedded randomization that will place participants into one of three groups. Each group will receive an information and priming treatment. Respondents will first enter demographic information, information about their education and childhood experiences, and answer a few questions that ask their beliefs about the origin of three place names in the United States. After the treatment, respondents will answer questions about their beliefs and views. Participants will: 1) guess the percentage of U.S. and their state populations that identifies in each racial group; and 2) guess the number of representatives in federal and their state government that identify in each racial group. Participants will then answer questions about their support for policies and activism concerning Native Americans, including the use of Native imagery and names in sports team mascots and other forms of representation, support for Native American sovereignty, and support for the U.S. abiding by treaties with Native American tribes.

Survey 2: Participants will take a 15-minute survey with an embedded randomization that will place participants into one of eleven treatment groups. Each group will receive an information and priming treatment. Respondents will first enter demographic information, information about their education and childhood experiences, and answer a few questions that ask their beliefs about the origin of three place names in the United States. After the treatment, participants will answer questions about their support for policies and activism concerning Native Americans, including the use of Native imagery and names in sports team mascots and other forms of representation, support for Native American sovereignty, and support for the U.S. abiding by treaties with Native American tribes.

The three groups and information treatments will be the following:
T1: This group will receive information about appropriated Indigeneity of the United States – Indigenous names that have been Anglicized and to many people represent white America. The message will read: "Did you know that almost half of the state names in the United States are believed to originate from Indigenous American names or words? Some states are named after the tribes who lived in the region, and other names are Anglicizations or simplifications of Indigenous words. For example, some people believe the name Wyoming is derived from the Leni-Lenape word ‘maugh-wau-wama’, meaning ‘extensive plains’. Massachusetts, the first state with an Indigenous name, comes from the Algonquian word ‘Massadchu-es-et’."
T2: This group will receive information about reclaimed Indigeneity in the United States – Indigenous names that have been chosen and named by Native American groups, spelled according to their original or chosen form. The message will read: "Did you know that many place names in the United States originate in Indigenous American languages? Native groups and individuals have made recent efforts to reclaim even more names in their Indigenous languages. Many places in the United States have been officially renamed to honor their original Indigenous names, including prominent places like Mount Denali, which was previously named Mount McKinley. There is ongoing activism to officially rename other prominent places to their Indigenous names, such as the efforts to change the official name Mount Rainier to Mount Tahoma."
C: This group will receive placebo information. This information is not intended to inform participants about the Indigeneity of place names in the United States, or trigger emotions based on the ownership of those names. Instead, this will serve as a comparison group for the other two treatments. In order to hold constant the impact of thinking about place names, this groups will receive information about place names that is neutral and descriptive. The message will read: "Did you know that many places in the United States are named for their geological features? Glacier National Park in Montana has more than twenty active glaciers. The rocks of the Rocky Mountain National Park began forming 1.7 billion years ago. Many smaller geographic features in the United States are also named to describe their features. There are over 500 streams in the United States with the name ‘Muddy’ (Creek, Brook, etc.) alone."

Randomization embedded in Qualtrics at the start of survey

Individual

No

Survey 1: 1,000 individuals

Survey 2: 480 individuals

Survey 1: 1,000 individuals Survey 2: 480 individuals

Survey 1: 333 Control; 333 Treatment 1; 334 Treatment 2

Survey 2: 60 in 3 control conditions; 52-53 in each of the 8 treatment conditions

US_Landmark_Names_Pilot_PAP.pdf