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Fear, Institutionalized Racism, and Empathy: The Underlying Dimensions of Whites’ Racial Attitudes

Publication ,  Journal Article
DeSante, CD; Smith, CW
Published in: PS: Political Science & Politics
October 2020

For nearly 75 years, scholars of American public opinion have sought to measure whites’ attitudes toward blacks: social scientists have invented and revised ways to measure what we could refer to as “racial prejudice.” With each revision, scholars who believe they have captured new forms of racial animus are met with opposition from those who believe that old-fashioned anti-black affect is a thing of the past. We directly answer these claims by collecting a surfeit of attitudinal measures to simultaneously estimate the relationship between cognitive beliefs about the racial status quo and emotional reactions to racism. First, we uncover that two higher-order dimensions undergird whites’ racial attitudes. Second, we validate a four-item version of our new battery using the 2016 Cooperative Congressional Election Study.

Duke Scholars

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Published In

PS: Political Science & Politics

DOI

EISSN

1537-5935

ISSN

1049-0965

Publication Date

October 2020

Volume

53

Issue

4

Start / End Page

639 / 645

Publisher

Cambridge University Press (CUP)

Related Subject Headings

  • Political Science & Public Administration
  • 4408 Political science
  • 1606 Political Science
 

Citation

APA
Chicago
ICMJE
MLA
NLM
DeSante, C. D., & Smith, C. W. (2020). Fear, Institutionalized Racism, and Empathy: The Underlying Dimensions of Whites’ Racial Attitudes. PS: Political Science & Politics, 53(4), 639–645. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1049096520000414
DeSante, Christopher D., and Candis Watts Smith. “Fear, Institutionalized Racism, and Empathy: The Underlying Dimensions of Whites’ Racial Attitudes.” PS: Political Science & Politics 53, no. 4 (October 2020): 639–45. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1049096520000414.
DeSante CD, Smith CW. Fear, Institutionalized Racism, and Empathy: The Underlying Dimensions of Whites’ Racial Attitudes. PS: Political Science & Politics. 2020 Oct;53(4):639–45.
DeSante, Christopher D., and Candis Watts Smith. “Fear, Institutionalized Racism, and Empathy: The Underlying Dimensions of Whites’ Racial Attitudes.” PS: Political Science & Politics, vol. 53, no. 4, Cambridge University Press (CUP), Oct. 2020, pp. 639–45. Crossref, doi:10.1017/s1049096520000414.
DeSante CD, Smith CW. Fear, Institutionalized Racism, and Empathy: The Underlying Dimensions of Whites’ Racial Attitudes. PS: Political Science & Politics. Cambridge University Press (CUP); 2020 Oct;53(4):639–645.

Published In

PS: Political Science & Politics

DOI

EISSN

1537-5935

ISSN

1049-0965

Publication Date

October 2020

Volume

53

Issue

4

Start / End Page

639 / 645

Publisher

Cambridge University Press (CUP)

Related Subject Headings

  • Political Science & Public Administration
  • 4408 Political science
  • 1606 Political Science