Bradley Effect in the United States

Bradley Effect (in Politics)

Related to political science, the following is a definition of Bradley Effect in the U.S. practice of politics: A theory that seeks to explain discrepancies between opinion polls and election outcomes when a white and black candidate run against each other.

Newsweek: “The Bradley effect is named after Tom Bradley, the former Los Angeles mayor who, in 1982, narrowly lost a bid to become California’s governor after having led substantially in the polls. The same pattern reflected itself in other instances involving African-American candidates: Douglas Wilder underperformed his polling in 1989 (but still narrowly won the Virginia governor’s race), as did David Dinkins in the New York mayoral race that same year. The theory goes that, in these races, white voters wanted to appear politically correct by telling pollsters they were going to vote for a black candidate when, in fact, they were not prepared to do so.”