Do Not Stand Idly By: The Effect of Victim Race on Public Support for Humanitarian Intervention

Abstract

In this study, I conducted an online survey experiment in order to test a theory about the role race plays in motivating support for humanitarian interventions. Literature about the effect of race on political behavior, racial priming, and an emerging white identity inform my primary hypothesis that when the victim in a humanitarian crisis is the same race as the respondent, support for the intervention will be higher. The experiment manipulated both the race of the victim to be signaled as either white or nonwhite, and the position of President Trump on the hypothetical intervention as strongly in favor or strongly opposed. To test my hypothesis, I used linear regression techniques. I found that Trump’s opinion is influential in motivating public support and that higher levels of white identity correspond to more support for a moral obligation to intervene when the victim group described is white. This information contributes to our understanding of what motivates public support behind interventions, how white identity manifests in opinions on foreign policy, and how individual-level variables can influence support for humanitarian intervention.