About

Hello, I'm Prof. Eric L. McDaniel. A professor, author & speaker in Austin.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Sociology
• Law
• Computer Science
• Artificial Intelligence
• Anesthesia
• Nursing
• Political economy
• Philosophy
• Medicine
• Theology
• Internal medicine
• Public relations
• Psychology
• Social psychology
• Aesthetics
• Psychiatry
• History
• Media studies
• Art
• Public administration

Selected publications

• White or Woke Christian Nationalists? How Race Moderates the Link Between Christian Nationalism and Progressive Identities

  Public Opinion Quarterly · 2025-01-01 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  Scholarship on "Christian nationalism" often frames it as antithetical to progressive politics. Yet recent studies find that historically disadvantaged racial minorities often espouse more progressive political views as Christian nationalism increases. Building on an understanding that American religion and politics are fundamentally racialized and drawing on nationally representative data from a nonprobability sample with a Christian nationalism scale incorporating ideology and self-identification, we examine how racial identity moderates the link between Christian nationalism and how much Americans identify with the terms "woke" and "progressive." Results reveal racial divergence. As Christian nationalism increases, White Americans are either no different or less likely to affirm progressive identities, while Black Americans become more likely to identify as "woke," and both Black and Hispanic Americans become more likely to identify as "progressive." Patterns are also consistent across partisan identity. Results further affirm how race moderates Christian nationalist views and demonstrate how endorsing progressive identities is differentially shaped by race and religion.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• In God’s Image:

  University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc. eBooks · 2024-01-09

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• CHAPTER 9 In God’s Image: White Evangelical Protestants and Threats to White Masculinity

  University of Pennsylvania Press eBooks · 2024-02-29

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• The contemporary Black church: the new dynamics of African American religion

  Ethnic and Racial Studies · 2024-11-29

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Religious Freedom Backlash: Evidence from Public Opinion Experiments about Free Expression

  PS Political Science & Politics · 2023 · 4 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Political Science
  • Sociology

  An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.

  PublisherDOI

• Embattled America: The Rise of Anti-Politics and America’s Obsession with Religion. By Jason C. Bivins. New York: Oxford University Press, 2022. 352p. $34.95 cloth.

  Perspectives on Politics · 2023-09-01

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  An abstract is not available for this content. As you have access to this content, full HTML content is provided on this page. A PDF of this content is also available in through the 'Save PDF' action button.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Must religious nationalism divide? Race, government‐supported religion, and views of political solidarity and compromise

  Social Science Quarterly · 2023-09-27 · 4 citations

  articleSenior author

  Abstract Background Americans who believe government policies should bolster religion's influence tend to favor rigid in‐group/out‐group distinctions and hierarchies. Yet given that religious and political views are fundamentally racialized, we theorize racial identity moderates the link between favoring government‐supported religion and views toward political solidarity and compromise. Objective This study extends our understanding of how beliefs about religion and politics involve not only different, but contradictory orientations to political solidarity and compromise contingent on racial identity. Methods We estimate binary logistic regression models using data from Pew Research Center's American Trends Panel, Wave 92, a nationally representative survey of over 9200 Americans. Results Main effects indicate that favoring government‐supported religion is associated with rejecting political compromise, but unassociated with measures of solidarity. Interactions, however, show main‐effects mask considerable racial variation. Substantively, the link between favoring government‐supported religion and rejecting political compromise is limited to White Americans. Yet Black Americans who favor government‐supported religion become significantly more likely to recognize shared values despite political differences and Black Americans who favor government‐supported religion see less difference between Democrats and Republicans, while their White counterparts see more. Conclusions Favorability toward government policies supporting religion does not necessarily represent “us versus them” orientations. Rather, the association is racially contingent.

  PublisherDOI

• Response to Jason C. Bivins’s Review of <i>The Everyday Crusade: Christian Nationalism in American Politics</i>

  Perspectives on Politics · 2023-09-01

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  An abstract is not available for this content. As you have access to this content, full HTML content is provided on this page. A PDF of this content is also available in through the 'Save PDF' action button.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Everyday Crusade

  2022 · 66 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Sociology
  • Political Science

  What is causing the American public to move more openly into alt-right terrain? What explains the uptick in anti-immigrant hysteria, isolationism, and an increasing willingness to support alternatives to democratic governance? The Everyday Crusade provides an answer. The book points to American Religious Exceptionalism (ARE), a widely held religious nationalist ideology steeped in myth about the nation's original purpose. The book opens with a comprehensive synthesis of research on nationalism and religion in American public opinion. Making use of survey data spanning three different presidential administrations, it then develops a new theory of why Americans form extremist attitudes, based on religious exceptionalism myths. The book closes with an examination of what's next for an American public that confronts new global issues, alongside existing challenges to perceived cultural authority. Timely and enlightening, The Everyday Crusade offers a critical touchstone for better understanding American national identity and the exclusionary ideologies that have plagued the nation since its inception.

  PublisherDOI

• Replication Data for: Normalizing Diversity in Merit Review Forms

  Harvard Dataverse · 2022-05-31

  datasetOpen access

  Replication material for Normalizing Diversity in Merit Review Forms. This paper is part of the PS Symposium on Diversity and Inclusion in Political Science.

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Worldviews Project

  NSF · $40k · 2011–2013

Frequent coauthors

• Irfan Nooruddin

  19 shared

• Allyson F. Shortle

  University of Oklahoma

  12 shared

• Tasha S. Philpot

  3 shared

• David L. Leal

  The University of Texas at Austin

  2 shared

• Sarah Heise

  2 shared

• Zeynep Somer‐Topcu

  2 shared

• Michael G. Findley

  The University of Texas at Austin

  2 shared

• Andrew R. Lewis

  University of Cincinnati

  2 shared

Education

• PhD, Political Science

  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  2004

• B.A., Political Science

  Wilberforce University

  1998