Sting in the tail

Ashby Plant is one of a number of psychologists who seized on Obamas candidacy to test hypotheses about the power of role models. Their work is already starting to reveal how the Obama effect is changing peoples views and behaviour. Perhaps surprisingly, it is not all good news: there is a sting in the tail of the Obama effect.

But first the good news. Barack Obama really is a positive role model for African Americans, and he was making an impact even before he got to the White House. Indeed, the Obama effect can be surprisingly immediate and powerful, as Ray Friedman of Vanderbilt University and his colleagues discovered.

They tested four separate groups at four key stages of Obamas presidential campaign. Each group consisted of around 120 adults of similar age and education, and the test assessed their language skills. At two of these stages, when Obamas success was less than certain, the tests showed a clear difference between the scores of the white and black participantsan average of 12.1 out of 20, compared to 8.8, for example. When the Obama fever was at its height, however, the black participants performed much better. Those who had watched Obamas acceptance speech as the Democrats presidential candidate performed just as well, on average, as the white subjects.After his election victory, this was true of all the black participants.

Dramatic shift

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