10.7910/DVN/QMVU0Z de Benedictis-Kessner, Justin Justin de Benedictis-Kessner https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2751-379X Harvard University Hankinson, Michael Michael Hankinson https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4099-2633 George Washington University Harvard Dataverse 2022 Social Sciences group identity race public health addiction healthcare public policy opioids de Benedictis-Kessner, Justin Justin de Benedictis-Kessner Harvard University 2022-11-29 2022-12-10 6577305 302164 application/octet-stream type/x-r-syntax 1.0 Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. How do media portrayals of potential policy beneficiaries' identities sway public support for these policies in a public health setting? Using a pre-registered vignette experiment, we show that the racial identity of substance users depicted in news media shapes public opinion on policies to address the opioid crisis. People display biases in favor of their own racial identity group that manifest in their support for both treatment-based policies and punitive policies. We show that these biases may be moderated by the type of initial drug used by a substance user and associated levels of perceived blame. Extending theories of group politics, we also assess favoritism based on gender and residential context identities, but find no such biases. These results highlight the continued centrality of race in the formation of policy preferences.