Negational racial identity and presidential voting preferences

Previous research suggests that narrow identification with one’s own racial group impedes coalition building among minorities. Consistent with this research, the 2008 Democratic primary was marked by racial differences in voting preferences: Black voters overwhelmingly preferred Barack Obama, a Black candidate, and Latinos and Asians largely favored Hillary Clinton, a White candidate. We investigated one approach to overcoming this divide: highlighting one’s negational identity. In two experiments simulating primary polling procedures, Asians and Latinos randomly assigned to think of and categorize themselves in negational terms (i.e., being non-White) were more likely to vote for Obama than participants focused on their affirmational identity (i.e, being Asian or Latino), who showed the typical preference for Clinton. This shift in voting preference was partially mediated by warmer attitudes towards other minority groups. These results suggest that negational identity is a meaningful source of social identity and demonstrate that whether one thinks about “who one is” versus “who one is not” has far-reaching impact for real-world decisions.     

Look Black in anger: The role of implicit prejudice in the categorization and perceived emotional intensity of racially ambiguous faces

Research has demonstrated that individuals high in implicit prejudice are more likely to classify a racially ambiguous angry face as Black compared to individuals low in implicit prejudice [Hugenberg, K., & Bodenhausen, G. V. (2004). Ambiguity in social categorization. Psychological Science, 15, 342-345]. The current study sought to replicate and extend this finding by examining whether the same expression of anger on a racially ambiguous face is perceived to be differentially intense when the face is judged to be Black or White. White participants viewed racially ambiguous, White, and Black faces displaying angry, neutral, or happy emotions. Participants’ task was to identify the race, emotion, and intensity of emotion display. The results revealed that participants high in implicit prejudice reported significantly more of the racially ambiguous angry faces as Black compared to participants low in implicit prejudice. Further, participants high in implicit prejudice reported the intensity of the racially ambiguous angry emotion as greater when the same face had been categorized as Black compared to White. The results suggest that implicit prejudice is not only associated with the racial categorization of an ambiguous face but also the perceived intensity of the emotion displayed.     

What motivates hate crimes based on sexual orientation? Mediating effects of anger on antigay aggression

The aim of this study was to examine the role of anger in response to gay men within three theoretical models of antigay aggression. Participants were 135 exclusively heterosexual men who completed a structured interview designed to assess sexual prejudice, anger in response to a vignette depicting a nonerotic male-male intimate relationship (i.e. partners saying "I love you", holding hands, kissing), and past perpetration of antigay aggression. Among identified antigay assailants, motivations for one earlier assault (i.e. sexual prejudice, peer dynamics, thrill seeking) were also assessed. Results indicated that anger fully mediated the relationship between sexual prejudice and antigay aggression, partially mediated the effect of peer dynamics on antigay aggression, and did not account for the relationship between thrill seeking and antigay aggression. These findings indicate that anger in response to gay men facilitates antigay aggression among some, but not all, antigay perpetrators.     

Nonconscious Feelings of Closeness toward African Americans and Support for Pro-Black Policies

In a democratic political system, where decisions are made by majority rule, the permanent exclusion of minorities is always a possibility. This raises a crucial question: what psychological mechanisms may allow members of a majority to identify with the political goals of a minority group? One possibility is that they are precisely the same mechanisms responsible for motivating minority members themselves to identify with the minority's political goals. According to the racial attitudes literature, African Americans are motivated by feelings of closeness toward Blacks to support pro‐Black policies. This study investigates the possibility that feelings of closeness toward Blacks may also motivate White Americans to support pro‐Black policies. To circumvent possible social desirability effects often associated with questions of race, feelings of closeness are measured both on the conscious (explicit) and nonconscious (implicit) levels. The implicit closeness measure is based on the idea of “cognitive self‐other overlap” ( Aron, Aron, Tudor, & Nelson, 1991 ) and has previously been used to measure nonconscious feelings of closeness in individual relationships. This study represents an application of this measure to the group level of racial intergroup relations. The study is based on a sample of 555 college students of diverse racial backgrounds. Results of a Granger‐causality test support the construct validity of the implicit closeness measure. Furthermore, explicit and implicit feelings of closeness toward African Americans predict pro‐Black policy support whether White participants are considered alone or together with participants of other backgrounds. Political and methodological implications of these findings are discussed.     

The roles of ethnic identity,anti-white attitudes,and academic self-concept in African American student achievement

Conventional wisdom in much of the educational and psychological literatures states that the ethnic and racial identity of African American students is related to their academic achievement. The purpose of this study was to determine whether ethnic identity and anti-white attitudes predicted the academic achievement of African American students at a historically Black university. A hypothesized path model was proposed that included ethnic identity, attitudes toward other ethnic groups, anti-white attitudes, perceptions of caring faculty, academic self-concept, and devaluing academic success. The path analysis model explained 27% of the variance in grade point average and revealed three direct effects on grade point average: (a) academic self-concept (positive), (b) devaluing academic success (negative), and (c) anti-white attitudes (negative). Ethnic identity was indirectly linked with grade point average (GPA) through academic self-concept and devaluing academic success. Tests of two alternative nested models suggest that even in an indirect role, ethnic identity may be more important than anti-white attitudes in a model of African American academic achievement.

Attitudes toward Indigenous Australians: the role of empathy and guilt

Previous research in Perth, Western Australia, finds a disturbing amount of prejudice against Indigenous Australians. At the forefront of much prejudice research has been the distinction between old‐fashioned and modern prejudice. We constructed an Attitude Toward Indigenous Australians scale from items originating from qualitative data. We found that negative attitudes were predicted by collective guilt about past and present wrongs to Indigenous Australians (collective guilt directly linked to Indigenous issues, as well as collective guilt generally). Negative attitudes were also predicted by a lack of empathy for Indigenous Australians, and affective perspective taking generally. Socio‐demographics (e.g. a lack of education) predicted negative attitudes, which indicate the necessity of taking both social‐psychological and socio‐demographic factors into account when examining the nature of prejudice. A number of practical implications arise from these findings. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Prejudice, Prodigality, and the Precariousness of Life

In this essay, I focus on James Dittes' Bias and the Pious (1973), which addresses the relationship of religion and prejudice from a psychological perspective. I give particular attention to his discussion of the needs that underlie prejudice, his suggestion that religion may meet these needs better than the prejudice itself, and his distinction between contractual and prodigal faith. The incident discussed in the book involving conflict between the minister and church leaders of Augustana Lutheran Church in Omaha is highlighted because of my personal association with this church.     

Combating prejudice and racism: new interventions from a functional analysis of racist language

Based on a conversational model of language‐use‐in‐social‐context, this article focuses on one particular form of racist and prejudiced talking that has not received enough attention—conversations in which racist statements function to maintain groups and relationships rather than seriously promote racism. Despite their casualness, such statements are still pernicious, and a range of potential interventions are proposed for this language function. These involve actively altering a community's discursive resources to include more rejoinders to racist comments. Such rejoinders must be utilized in the most appropriate way for any relationship, and this might mean polite corrections, witty repartee, strong put‐downs to silence someone making racist comments, or as counter‐jokes to racist jokes, depending upon the social context and power relations involved. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Development of anti‐immigrant attitudes in adolescence: The role of parents,peers, intergroup friendships,and empathy

Ethnic and racial intergroup attitudes are assumed to develop due to the influence of socialization contexts. However, there is still little longitudinal evidence supporting this claim. We also know little about the relative importance of socialization contexts, the possible interplay between them as well as about the conditions and mechanisms that might underlie socialization effects. This longitudinal study of adolescents (N = 517) examined the effects of parents and peers’ anti‐immigrant attitudes as well as intergroup friendships on relative changes in adolescents’ anti‐immigrant prejudice, controlling for the effects of socioeconomic background. It also examined whether the effects of parents or peers would depend on adolescents’ intergroup friendships. In addition, it explored whether the effects of parents, peers, and intergroup friendships would be mediated or moderated by adolescents’ empathy. Results showed significant effects of parents, peers, intergroup friendships, and socioeconomic background on changes in youth attitudes, highlighting the role of parental prejudice. They also showed adolescents with immigrant friends to be less affected by parents and peers’ prejudice than youth without immigrant friends. In addition, results showed the effects of parents, peers, and intergroup friendships to be mediated by adolescents’ empathic concern. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Many faces of dogmatism: Prejudice as a way of protecting certainty against value violators among dogmatic believers and atheists

In this article, we suggest that dogmatic beliefs, manifested as strong beliefs that there is no God (i.e., dogmatic atheism) as well as strong beliefs in God (i.e., religious orthodoxy), can serve as a cognitive response to uncertainty. Moreover, we claim that people who dogmatically do not believe in religion and those who dogmatically believe in religion are equally prone to intolerance and prejudice towards groups that violate their important values. That is because prejudice towards these groups may be an efficient strategy to protect the certainty that strong beliefs provide. We tested these assumptions in two studies. In Study 1 and Study 2, we demonstrated that dogmatic beliefs mediate the relationship between intolerance to uncertainty and both, religious orthodoxy and dogmatic atheism. In addition, in Study 2 we showed that both the religiously orthodox and dogmatic atheists become prejudiced towards groups that violate their values and that these effects are especially strong under experimentally induced uncertainty. In this study, we focused on atheists and homosexuals as groups that pose a threat to Christian's religious worldviews, and Catholics and pro‐life supporters as groups that pose a threat to the values of atheists. The results are discussed in relation to past research on dogmatism and religion, as well as with reference to what this means for the study of prejudice.