EAPC - European Association of Political Consultants

Victoria DeFrancesco Soto's work focuses on campaigns and elections underpinned by the intersection of political psychology and race and ethnic politics. She is interested in how cognition and affect shape the processing of political information within a dynamic political environment of changing racial and ethnic demographics. Her research projects examine the influence of social group identity on political behavior, in particular with regards to campaigns; black-Latino intergroup relations; comparative race studies; and attitudes toward immigration. DeFrancesco Soto is currently examining how Latinos evaluate co-ethnic candidates. In particular, she considers how different dimensions of Latino group identity influence the ultimate evaluation of a co-ethnic candidate. She has also published several papers on inter-minority relations, with an emphasis on the negotiation of race relations in the new South as a result of the growth of Latinos in that region. A third major component of DeFrancesco Soto's research is the area of campaign media effects, where she and Jennifer Merolla were the first to publish a study on the role of Latino-angled campaign advertisements on electoral behavior in 2006.