Distributing prejudice unequally: do Whites direct their prejudice toward strongly identified minorities?

Across 6 studies, Whites expressed more negative attitudes toward strongly identified racial minorities than toward weakly identified minorities. Whites who personally endorsed worldviews that legitimize the status hierarchy were particularly likely to express negative attitudes toward strongly iden...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of personality and social psychology Vol. 96; no. 2; p. 432
Main Authors Kaiser, Cheryl R, Pratt-Hyatt, Jennifer S
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 01.02.2009
Subjects
Attitude
European Continental Ancestry Group
Female
Humans
Male
Minority Groups
Prejudice
Self Concept
Social Identification
Social Perception
Stereotyping
Young Adult
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Summary:Across 6 studies, Whites expressed more negative attitudes toward strongly identified racial minorities than toward weakly identified minorities. Whites who personally endorsed worldviews that legitimize the status hierarchy were particularly likely to express negative attitudes toward strongly identified minorities relative to weakly identified minorities, whereas Whites who personally rejected status-legitimizing worldviews displayed the opposite pattern. In addition, Whites' biases against strongly identified minorities dissipated when strongly identified minorities expressed strong endorsement of status-legitimizing worldviews. These studies suggest that Whites do not distribute their prejudicial attitudes equally among all members of minority groups and that some subsets of minorities (the strongly identified) might bear the brunt of racial prejudice.
ISSN:0022-3514
DOI:10.1037/a0012877