Department of Statistics, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027;
Department of Political Science, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2021 Feb 9;118(6). doi: 10.1073/pnas.2019375118.
To explain the political clout of different social groups, traditional accounts typically focus on the group's size, resources, or commonality and intensity of its members' interests. We contend that a group's penumbra-the set of individuals who are personally familiar with people in that group-is another important explanatory factor that merits systematic analysis. To this end, we designed a panel study that allows us to learn about the characteristics of the penumbras of politically relevant groups such as gay people, the unemployed, or recent immigrants. Our study reveals major and systematic differences in the penumbras of various social groups, even ones of similar size. Moreover, we find evidence that entering a group's penumbra is associated with a change in attitude on group-related policy questions. Taken together, our findings suggest that penumbras are pertinent for understanding variation in the political standing of different groups in society.
为了解释不同社会群体的政治影响力，传统的解释通常侧重于群体的规模、资源，或者成员利益的共同性和强度。我们认为，群体的半影（即与该群体中的人有私人关系的个人）是另一个值得系统分析的重要解释因素。为此，我们设计了一项面板研究，使我们能够了解与政治相关的群体（如同性恋者、失业者或新移民）的半影特征。我们的研究揭示了各种社会群体的半影之间存在显著且系统的差异，即使是规模相似的群体也是如此。此外，我们还发现有证据表明，进入一个群体的半影与在与群体相关的政策问题上的态度变化有关。总的来说，我们的研究结果表明，半影对于理解社会中不同群体的政治地位的变化是相关的。
