Ancestry, Color, or Culture? How Whites Racially Classify Others in the US1

Historically, the U.S. legal system formally institutionalized ancestry and appearance as the foundations of racial membership. Yet evidence suggests informal classification logics based on cultural cues like religion or language may have also long been present. Using a conjoint survey experiment, we disentangle the underlying classification logics of White observers and uncover three key norms: (1) ancestry strongly shapes classification, but there is little evidence of strict hypodescent; (2) skin color is a powerful signal that overrides ancestry when these signals conflict; and (3) sociocultural cues are especially important for racial middle categories such as Hispanic, Native American, MENA, and Asian. Our findings show that formal and informal racial classification logics can coexist in time and place. Further, the balance of these competing logics may depend on how state and nonstate actors establish and reinforce membership criteria. Our results hold methodological implications for studies that seek to operationalize race.

Automated summary

The study found that ancestry strongly influences racial classification, but skin color is a more powerful signal that takes precedence when conflicting with ancestral signals. Sociocultural cues are particularly important for racial middle categories such as Hispanic, Native American, MENA, and Asian.