Research discovers that Native Americans’ recognition of exclusion and prejudice drives their participation in civic activities

Derogatory stereotypes not only constitute a clear form of discrimination but also communicate a lack of respect for a community’s absence of representation in mainstream society. Native Americans, for example, are often underrepresented in media and policy discussions. In a recent study published in Psychological Science, researchers discovered that Native American adults who strongly identified with their Native heritage were more likely to notice instances of omission and discrimination towards their group, leading to increased engagement in civic activities.

Lead author J. Doris Dai from the University of Washington explained that for Native individuals who consider their Native identity an important aspect of themselves and care about their communities, the absence of Native representations suggests that mainstream society discriminates against Native Americans as a group. In response, Native individuals leverage their civic engagement as a means to amplify their voices and address discrimination.

Dai and her colleagues conducted four studies involving over 11,000 participants to examine the relationship between the strength of a person’s Native American identity, perceptions of omission and discrimination, and civic engagement.

In the initial pilot study, the researchers analyzed existing data from 500 participants in the Indigenous Futures Survey, a 15-minute online survey. Among the 6,461 Native American individuals surveyed, participants were asked about their needs, political perspectives, and engagement in civic activities such as signing petitions and grassroots organizing in the past 5 years. They were also asked to rate the importance of being Native American to their identity and the extent to which they perceived Native Americans to be discriminated against and underrepresented in public life.

Although the pilot study did not find a strong relationship between the strength of participants’ Native American identity and their civic engagement, it did show that a strong Native identity was associated with perceiving greater omission and discrimination against Native Americans, which in turn was associated with higher levels of civic engagement.

Based on these findings, Dai and her colleagues conducted a similar survey of 3,586 Native American participants. In addition to assessing civic engagement, participants were asked to report instances of Native omission in general and respond to a specific instance of omission during CNN’s 2020 election coverage. In this instance, Native Americans were grouped into the “something else” category, while other racial groups were explicitly mentioned.

The results showed that respondents who identified more strongly as Native American were more likely to engage in get-out-the-vote activities during the 2020 presidential election. Stronger Native identification was also associated with recognizing more general and specific instances of Native omission, which in turn was associated with greater engagement with the election.

These findings were further supported by a subsequent study with the remaining 5,961 respondents from the Indigenous Futures Survey. The study indicated that higher perceptions of discrimination were associated with greater civic engagement. Furthermore, higher Native identification and perceptions of omission and discrimination were found to be linked not only to greater civic engagement over a 5-year period but also to engagement in higher risk and higher commitment civic activities, such as attending protests and campaigning for candidates.

Dai and her colleagues also identified the specific pathway through which this relationship likely occurred: Higher Native identification increased recognition of omission, which in turn increased perceptions of discrimination, ultimately leading to increased civic engagement.

In a third study involving 1,609 respondents, the researchers found that participants who identified more strongly as Native American were also more likely to report their intention to engage in civic activities over the next 12 months. Once again, perceptions of omission and discrimination mediated this effect.

Dai expressed her interest in future research that explores what motivates non-Native people to omit Native Americans and the psychological processes non-Native people must overcome to address this omission. She plans to investigate how Native omission may function as a form of implicit bias, rooted in non-Native people’s unconscious belief that Native Americans no longer exist in modern society.

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