The Politics of Political Knowledge: An Experimental Analysis in West Africa

The purpose of this study is to extend research from the U.S. that finds political knowledge is subject to biases based on race of enumerator. In this analysis, we will ask five objective and five subjective political questions to see if responses vary by enumerator including by an African male enumerator, an African female enumerator, and an American male enumerator. In regards to the objective questions it is expected based on past research that the American enumerators will elicit anxiety as he is not someone that people are accustomed to and thus they will make more errors compared to the responses given to the African enumerators. The error rate should be higher for the African male compared to the African female enumerators although both should be lower than the American enumerator. For the subjective questions, relating to political issues of gay marriage, child labor, illegal immigration, and the presence of foreign militaries in Africa, it is expected that respondents will conform with what they expect the enumerator thinks about these issues. In other words there will be more socially desirable answers which means for the African enumerators responses will be less favorable to supporting gay marriage, citizenship for illegal immigrants, and placing restrictions on child labor. For the American enumerator responses to subjective questions should be more favorable to these different issues. We expect to find that the proportion supporting gay marriage should be higher when interviewed by the American enumerator compared to the African enumerators.