**Principal investigator:**
**Yanna Krupnikov**
Northwestern University
Email: yanna.krupnikov@northwestern.edu
Homepage: http://www.yannakrupnikov.com/
**Sample size:** 1208
**Field period:** 12/09/2011-04/10/2012
**Hypotheses:**
H1: White voters with negative racial attitudes are more likely to punish Black candidates who go negative than White candidates who go negative.
H2: White voters with positive racial attitudes are less likely to punish Black candidates who go negative than White candidates who go negative.
**Experimental Manipulations:**
1. Race of attacking candidate
2. Race of target candidate
**Key Dependent Variables:**
Evaluations of candidates and attributions of behavior.
**Summary of Findings:**
We find that White voters with negative racial attitudes are more likely to punish Black candidates who go negative. We observe this through declining evaluations of Black candidates who attack, but increasing evaluations of White targets of attacks. We also observe that White voters with negative racial attitudes attribute negativity by Black candidates to dispositional factors, but negativity by White candidates to situational factors.
