[6] Some previous research suggests that the positive relationship between black density and white crossover voting may be explained by social interaction theory, which posits that the degree of spatial concentration of blacks determines the amount of racial interaction that whites have with black individuals (Carsey, 1995; Huckfeldt and Sprague, 1995; Kinder and Mendelberg, 1995; Huckfeldt, 1986). As racial interact increases, “the probability that those [white] individuals will adopt political attitudes and behaviors similar to those [blacks] with whom they interact increases" (Carsey, 1995: 223). The election unit level data employed in the present study, however, are not appropriate for testing social interaction theory. The black density of a relatively large geographic area, such as a city or council district, may not relate to the level of racial interaction, which can better be measured at the neighborhood level (Huckfeldt, 1986).
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