Study finds Trump 2024 rhetoric linked to higher acceptability and expression of prejudice
Feb 24th 2026
A replication study published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin reports that groups targeted by Donald Trump during the 2024 campaign were seen as more acceptable targets of prejudice and experienced small rises in self-reported bias after the election.
- The study was published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin and authored by Samuel E. Arnold, Jenniffer Wong Chavez, Kelly S. Swanson, and Christian S. Crandall.
- Researchers compared pre-election (n=362) and post-election (n=261) ratings from midwestern undergraduates across 128 social groups, with a third sample (n=188) rating how negatively Trump spoke about each group.
- Groups that Trump spoke harshly about in 2024 showed an increase in perceived social acceptability of prejudice after the election.
- Self-reported prejudice also rose for many of those same targeted groups following the election.
- The effect appeared across participants regardless of their reported partisan leaning.
- The study is observational, used a mostly White female college sample, and measured change over weeks, which limits causal claims and national generalizability.