The increase in the number of people classified as multiracial in the 2020 census was mostly due to a change in how people were classified by the U.S. Census Bureau, rather than actual shifts in racial or ethnic identity, according to Princeton sociologists. The Census Bureau provided space on the census form for people to write in their families' origins, which influenced how they were categorized. The researchers argue that the multiracial increase was a result of reclassifying people who marked themselves as a single race but wrote in their Latin American or African origins. The researchers believe the procedure was misleading and caused unwarranted panic among white conservatives about demographic change.