The Bradley/Wilder effect—the claim that voters tell pollsters they will vote for a black candidate but then don't—was a real overstatement of the black-candidate vote in the early 1980s but disappeared by around the late 1990s; a study Rivers cites found no systematic over-reporting across black congressional and Senate candidates and no comparable 'Whitman effect' for women candidates.

factualpending

Speaker

Doug Rivers

Evidence Quote

there is no systematic over-reporting according to this analysis of the vote for black candidates and then he also looked at women candidates and didn't find any effect there

Source

Doug Rivers on polling 7/21/2008EconTalk
Created: 6/15/2026, 9:28:54 AM

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