Casting roles, casting votes: Lessons from Sesame Street on media representation, racial biases, and voting

Claire Duquennois and Jiangnan Zeng

No 98, CLEF Working Paper Series from Canadian Labour Economics Forum (CLEF), University of Waterloo

Abstract: Evidence on the media's potential to reduce prejudice is limited. Sesame Street's positive representation of minority characters and working women was distinctive in the media landscape of 1969. Using age and technological variation in broadcast reception, we show that Sesame Street increased political engagement and reduced prejudice decades later. Exposed cohorts in high coverage counties are 4.2 ppts more likely to vote, have lower measures of racial biases, and report more votes for minority and women candidates to the U.S. House by 8.1 and 5.8 ppts respectively. On ballots featuring white men, turnout gains are split between parties.

JEL-codes: D72 J15 J16 L82 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his and nep-pke
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:clefwp:344222

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