Yard Signs and the Politicization of Social Spaces
Todd Makse | Scott L. Minkoff | Anand E. Sokhey
Political yard signs are one of the most conspicuous features of American political campaigns, yet they have received little attention as a form of political communication or participation. In a climate in which the American public is highly polarized, these symbols are more than simple campaign tools—they are literal markers of partisan identity. As public cues that push into private life, they affect individuals and their neighborhoods, coloring perceptions of social spaces and impacting social networks.
In Politics on Display we answer questions about this familiar feature of electoral politics: Why do people put their preferences out there for the world to see? Do neighborhoods become political battlegrounds? What are the consequences of displaying yard signs in the spaces where we spend most of our time?
We answer these questions with an innovative research design, documenting political life in neighborhoods with complementary data sources: street-level observation of the placement of signs and neighborhood-specific survey research that delves into the attitudes, behavior, and social networks of residents. Integrating these data into a geodatabase that also includes demographic and election data—and supplementing these data with nationally-representative studies—we bring together insights from political communication, political psychology, and political geography. Against a backdrop of today’s political environment of conflict and division, we advance a new understanding of how citizens experience campaigns, of why many still insist on airing their views in public, and of what happens when social spaces become political spaces.
Politics on Display is published by Oxford University Press.
Mischiefs of Faction Post
What We Learned from Studying Yard Signs
As an election approaches, it often feels like political yard signs are suddenly everywhere. According to the American National Election Studies, roughly one American in ten typically displays a yard sign for a presidential candidate. Meanwhile, recent stories suggest a degree of merging between offline and online worlds: players in Nintendo’s “Animal Crossing” can now adorn the yard of their island with one of four available Biden-Harris yard signs. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many of us are spending more time than ever in our residential spaces, and the signs we choose to display take on new meaning. For political scientists, the central questions that have always emerged in the fall (especially during national election years) are “Why are people doing this?,” and “What do these signs do to our neighborhoods?”
