Trends in

Cognitive Sciences OPEN ACCESS

Science & Society

changed how Americans feel about One such investigation found that even brief
Did Donald Trump’s minoritized racial and religious groups. exposure to Trump’s prejudiced rhetoric
presidency reshape Did Trump’s controversial rhetoric unleash (a single statement embedded among
Americans’ prejudices? prejudice among the American people? other political quotes) led participants –
Several broad areas of research shed light particularly those who personally supported
Benjamin C. Ruisch1,* and on this question. These findings suggest Trump – to express greater prejudice to-
Melissa J. Ferguson 2 that discrimination (particularly hate crimes) wards a minoritized group [2]. Similarly, a
increased following Trump’s election, and second investigation found that exposure
that Trump’s rhetoric emboldened people to Trump’s rhetoric had an emboldening
Did the presidency of Donald Trump to express prejudices they previously kept effect for prejudiced individuals, leading
affect Americans’ intergroup atti- hidden, and may even have shifted their them to express greater acceptance of
tudes? Converging evidence from privately held attitudes. Together, these others’ prejudiced behavior, as well as to
lines of work demonstrate that Trump’s personally be more willing to disparage a
recent experimental and longitudinal
election reshaped the topography of preju- member of a minoritized group [3].
studies suggests that Trump’s po-
dice in the USA.
litical rise led his supporters to Real-world societal attitudes
increase their reported prejudice Hate crimes These findings demonstrate that exposure
toward traditionally minoritized ra- Evidence suggests that hate crimes in- to Trump’s rhetoric can influence people’s
cial and religious groups in the USA. creased substantially during Trump’s presi- intergroup attitudes and behavior, at least
dency. For example, anti-Semitic incidents temporarily and under carefully controlled
in the USA increased 86% in the first quarter conditions. However, they cannot tell us
of 2017 (post-election) compared with the whether Trump’s presidency led to lasting
We are currently witnessing a historic same time period in 2016 (pre-election)vi. and large-scale changes in Americans’
rise in populist, right-wing leaders around Similarly, there was a 91% increase in anti- expressions of prejudice.
the globei,ii (Box 1). The political rhetoric Muslim hate crimes in the first half of 2017,
of many of these leaders – particularly compared with the same time period in Early work on this question provided mixed
towards minoritized racial, religious, and 2016 (pre-election)vii. These trends con- evidence for short-term effects. On one
cultural groups – has often been notably tinued throughout Trump’s presidency, hand, multiple lines of research suggested
counternormative, defying modern conven- with annual hate crimes remaining around that Americans’ levels of prejudice did not
tions regarding acceptable political dis- 20% higher during his administrationviii. increase following Trump’s election—and,
course and frequently being labeled as Other research specifically tied these in- in fact, may even have decreased. For
bigotediii. creases in hate crimes to Trump himself, example, nationally representative surveys
finding that counties that hosted a Trump documented a mean-level decrease in
One particularly well-studied counter- rally showed hate crime rates almost double prejudice against Black individuals from
normative political figure is US President those of similar counties with no rally [1]. pre- to post-election [4]. On the other
Donald Trump. Throughout his candi- These findings suggest that discrimination hand, one study examining voters’ attitudes
dacy and subsequent presidency, increased following Trump’s election. during the week of the November 2016
Trump used rhetoric that was widely char- election showed an increase in sexism
acterized as prejudiced against minoritized Experimental studies among Trump supporters from the days
groupsiv. He also retained ties to far-right Yet these increases in hate crimes – as immediately before the election to the
nationalist groups and has received open troubling as they are – represent the acts days immediately after [5].
support from White nationalists such as of an exceedingly small proportion of
Richard Spencer and David Dukeiv. His sup- Americans and therefore cannot decisively Taking a broader view, subsequent re-
porters also consistently tend to express far tell us whether Trump’s presidency af- search provided a wider-ranging examina-
greater racial and religious prejudice than fected the attitudes and behavior of the tion of whether, why, and among whom
do supporters of other major US political average American. However, a second prejudice increased during Trump’s presi-
figuresv. body of research provides experimental dency. We examined Americans’ attitudes
support for the contention that Trump’s towards Muslims, African Americans,
These trends have led commentators rhetoric can increase expressions of preju- Mexicans, women, gay and lesbian indi-
to ask whether Trump’s presidency has dice among citizens. viduals, immigrants, and many other groups

Trends in Cognitive Sciences, March 2023, Vol. 27, No. 3 207

 Trends in Cognitive Sciences
OPEN ACCESS

Box 1. Broader context Trump supporters being more willing to

Americans have become less likely to express blatant prejudice toward racial and religious minoritized groups express prejudices that they previously
over the last several decades [10,11]. Although evidence of prejudice and discrimination is still plentiful [12],
scholars have increasingly focused on how prejudice might exist (and potentially affect outcomes) in more
felt the need to keep hidden? Or have
subtle and indirect forms: for example, implicit bias and prejudiced sentiments disguised as principled conser- their attitudes in fact been altered as a
vatism (e.g., [11]). However, recent events such as Trump’s election and the rise of similar populist and far- result of Trump’s presidency?
right extremists around the globe raise the question of whether blatant prejudice is making a comeback,
and what this portends for the safety and wellbeing of groups that have been minoritized and marginalized
in the USA and around the world.
Recent research provides tentative insight
into these questions, showing that these
attitude shifts went beyond straightforward
that have been historically marginalized in Americans decreased in prejudice. Because explicit expressions of prejudice, emerging
the USA [6]. We surveyed 1000 American the increase in prejudice among Trump sup- even in people’s immediate and automatic
participants prior to Trump’s election and porters was counterbalanced by a corre- responses to minoritized groups [8]. This
then followed up with these same partici- sponding decrease among many non- work documented an increase in ‘implicit
pants using the same measures following Trumpers, and because Trump supporters bias’ (i.e., attitudes assessed indirectly,
Trump’s election in 2016. are (at least according to the popular vote) which are largely spontaneous and hard
generally outnumbered in the population, to control) towards Black people that
In these studies, we found that how peo- overall mean levels of prejudice in the USA corresponded precisely to Trump’s early
ple’s expressed prejudice changed over may have decreased even as one sub- candidacy. This increase in bias also ex-
this time period depended on the political group of Americans, Trump’s supporters, tended to other groups frequently targeted
group to which they belonged. People increased in prejudice. by Trump’s rhetoric – in particular, disabled
in Donald Trump’s political base, on people and overweight people – and lasted
average, became increasingly willing to Mechanisms of rising prejudice approximately 1 year before returning to
declare their disdain toward minoritized But why have Trump voters increased in baseline. Moreover, this increase in implicit
ethnic, religious, and cultural groups, both prejudice? Research suggests that these bias was particularly concentrated among
foreign groups and their fellow Americans. changes can be traced back to shifting conservatives and those living in states
Following Trump’s election and during his social norms, that is, beliefs about the that voted for Trump. These findings
presidency, Trump supporters on average acceptability of expressing prejudice. One provide additional evidence that some
increased in their expressed prejudice line of work [7] showed that people felt Americans’ attitudes toward marginalized
toward Muslims, immigrants, and African that expressing prejudice towards certain groups became more negative during
Americans. At the same time, their evalua- minoritized groups was more acceptable Trump’s presidency.
tions of White people and Christians in the week following (vs. the week
became more positive. before) the election. We further found that Implications
these perceptions of shifting norms were From a more practical perspective, how-
By contrast, progressives, and even conser- strongest among supporters of Trump; ever, the question of whether these changes
vatives and Republicans who did not sup- they tended to feel that Americans – par- represent ‘real’ changes in prejudice versus
port Trump, remained stable in – and in ticularly Americans who, like them, per- differences in willingness to express it may
some cases decreased – their expressions sonally supported Trump – became more be only a secondary concern. In the real
of prejudice over this same time period. accepting of prejudicial attitudes following world, both may have similar effects. Indeed,
Critically, we also replicated this pattern of Trump’s election [6]. This perception that in our own data [6], the changes in
results with over 7700 Americans from a na- expressing prejudice had become more expressed prejudice that we documented
tionally representative sample. These results acceptable, in turn, led Trump voters to uniquely predicted policy attitudes, such
suggest that the aggregate increase in themselves feel more comfortable doing so. that those who increased in expressed
expressed prejudice appears to emerge prejudice were particularly willing to sup-
among Trump voters, rather than among Emboldenment versus ‘real’ attitude port concrete policies excluding and dero-
Americans more generally. change gating minoritized groups (e.g., banning
One question this past research could not Muslims from the USA, restricting immi-
These findings provide a more nuanced fully answer is whether people’s authentic gration, opposing affirmative action).
picture of how prejudice changed after the views have changed, or just their willing- Moreover, these increases in discrimina-
rise of Trump. Moreover, they also help to ness to express those views. In other tion and expressed prejudice – whether
reconcile previous findings suggesting that words, do these changes simply represent representing real attitude change or simple

208 Trends in Cognitive Sciences, March 2023, Vol. 27, No. 3

Trends in Cognitive Sciences
OPEN ACCESS

Box 2. International spillover effects? *Correspondence:

b.ruisch@kent.ac.uk (B.C. Ruisch).
Given Trump’s prominence on the global stage, is it possible that his controversial rhetoric may have served to
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2022.12.013
embolden prejudice even beyond the USA? Some research supports this possibility. Using a quasi-experimental
approach, one paper [13] compared the racial bias of participants who completed the European Social Survey © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open
(ESS) shortly before versus shortly after (±15 days) Trump’s election. They found significantly higher levels of bias access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.
in the immediate aftermath of Trump’s election, with participants expressing greater opposition to immigration org/licenses/by/4.0/).
from members of other racial and ethnic groups. The authors interpret their findings as indicating that the election
of Trump sent a global signal about the acceptability of prejudice that crossed national borders.
References
1. Feinberg, A. et al. (2022) The Trump effect: how 2016
campaign rallies explain spikes in hate. PS Polit. Sci.
emboldenment – are likely to have similarly Acknowledgments Polit. 55, 257–265
2. Schaffner, B.F. (2020) The Acceptance and Expression of
devastating effects for minoritized social This work was supported in part by an NSF grant Prejudice during the Trump Era, Cambridge University
groups. Supporting this, during Trump’s awarded to M.J.F. (National Science Foundation Press

administration members of minoritized BCS-1252040). 3. Newman, B. et al. (2021) The Trump effect: an experimental
investigation of the emboldening effect of racially inflamma-
groups who felt targeted by Trump’s rhe- tory elite communication. Br. J. Polit. Sci. 51, 11381159

toric experienced greater expectations of Declaration of interests
No interests are declared.
day-to-day discrimination [9], and a ma-
jority of Asian Americans reported in
Resources
April 2022 that violence against them i
freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/202202/FIW_
is increasing in the USA, with a third 2022_PDF_Booklet_Digital_Final_Web.pdf
reporting that they have altered their iiwww.hrw.org/sites/default/files/media_2022/01/
daily activities because of fears of being World%20Report%202022%20web%20pdf_0.pdf
attacked or threatenedix. iii
www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/04/23/
why-far-rightpopulists-are-war-with-history/
iv
Regardless of the nature of these changes www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/06/
trump-racism-comments/588067/
in prejudice, at this particular sociopoliti-
v
cal moment perhaps the more pressing www.vox.com/2016/9/12/12882796/trump-
supporters-racist-deplorables
question is: what will happen to citizens’ vi
www.adl.org/resources/reports/2017-audit-of-anti-
attitudes if Trump – and other counter-
semitic-incidents
normative political figures like him – gain vii
www.newsweek.com/hate-crime-americamuslims-
further power and visibility? Our findings trump-638000
suggest that as these leaders continue viii
www.newsweek.com/hate-crimes-under-trump-
to ascend on the global political stage, surged-nearly20-percent-says-fbi-report-1547870
this may further amplify prejudice among ix
www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/05/09/
their followers (Box 2). If voters continue about-a-third-of-asian-americans-say-they-have-
changed-their-daily-routine-due-to-concerns-over-
to (re)elect these leaders – particularly
threats-attacks/
figures such as Trump whose controver-
4. Hopkins, D.J. and Washington, S. (2020) The rise of Trump,
the fall of prejudice? Tracking white Americans’ racial
attitudes via a panel survey, 2008–2018. Public Opin. Q.
84, 119–140
5. Georgeac, O.A. et al. (2019) An exploratory investigation
of Americans’ expression of gender bias before and after
the 2016 presidential election. Soc. Psychol. Personal.
Sci. 10, 632–642
6. Ruisch, B.C. and Ferguson, M.J. (2022) Changes in
Americans’ prejudices during the presidency of Donald
Trump. Nat. Hum. Behav. 6, 656–665
7. Crandall, C.S. et al. (2018) Changing norms following the
2016 US presidential election: the Trump effect on prejudice.
Soc. Psychol. Personal. Sci. 9, 186–192
8. Charlesworth, T.E. and Banaji, M.R. (2022) Patterns of
implicit and explicit attitudes: IV. change and stability from
2007 to 2020. Psychol. Sci. 33, 1347–1371
9. Block, K. et al. (2022) Making America great for whom?:
How Trump’s presidency affected fit and national identity
among targets of bias. Self Identity Published online
September 1, 2022. http://doi.org/10.1080/15298868.
2022.2113124
10. Bobo, L.D. and Charles, C.Z. (2009) Race in the American
mind: from the Moynihan report to the Obama candidacy.
Ann. Am. Acad. Polit. Soc. Sci. 621, 243–259
11. Dovidio, J.F. and Gaertner, S.L. (2004) Aversive racism.
Adv. Exp. Soc. Psychol. 36, 4–56
12. Rucker, J.M. and Richeson, J.A. (2021) Toward an under-
standing of structural racism: implications for criminal justice.
Science 374, 286–290
13. Giani, M. and Méon, P.G. (2021) Global racist contagion
following Donald Trump's election. Br. J. Polit. Sci. 51,
1332–1339

sial views are by now well known – this 1

School of Psychology, The University of Kent, Canterbury CT2
will likely cast a further veneer of accept- 7NP, UK
2
Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven,
ability to expressing intergroup disdain. CT 06520, USA

Trends in Cognitive Sciences, March 2023, Vol. 27, No. 3 209