Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T23:28:54.407Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

27 - The Continuing Relevance of Whites’ Explicit Bias – and Reflections on the Tools to Measure It

from Section VI - Explicit Prejudice; Alive and Well?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 December 2024

By
Maria Krysan
Edited by
Jon A. Krosnick ,
Tobias H. Stark  and
Amanda L. Scott
Jon A. Krosnick
Affiliation:
Stanford University, California
Tobias H. Stark
Affiliation:
Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Amanda L. Scott
Affiliation:
The Strategy Team, Columbus, Ohio
Get access

Summary

The explosion of attention to measuring and understanding implicit bias has been influential inside and outside the academy. The purpose of this chapter is to balance the conversation about how to unpack and understand implicit bias, with an exploration of what we know about Whites’ explicit bias, and how surveys and other data can be used to measure it. This chapter begins with a review of survey-based data on White racial attitudes that reveal complex trends and patterns, with some topics showing changes for the better, but others showing persistent negative or stagnant trends. Drawing on examples using a variety of methodological tools, including (1) traditional survey questions; (2) survey-based mode/question wording experiments; (3) open-ended questions embedded in surveys; and (4) in-depth interviews, I illustrate what explicit racial biases can look like, and how they might be consequential. I argue that a full understanding of intergroup relations requires sophisticated methods and theories surrounding both explicit and implicit biases, how they function separately and in combination, and their causes and consequences.

Keywords

Whites’explicit racial attitudesmethodssurveys
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Implicit Bias and Racism , pp. 692 - 710
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Banks, A. J., & Hicks, H. M. (2016). Fear and implicit racisms: Whites’ support for voter ID laws. Political Psychology, 37(5), 641–658. https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12292CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Billingham, C. M., & Hunt, M. O. (2016). School racial composition and parental choice: New evidence on the preferences of white parents in the United States. Sociology of Education, 89(2), 99–117. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0038040716635718CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blumer, H. (1958). Race prejudice as a sense of group position. Pacific Sociological Review, 1, 3–7. https://doi.org/10.2307%2F1388607CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bobo, L. D. (1983). Whites’ opposition to busing: Symbolic racism or realistic group conflict? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45, 1196–1210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bobo, L. D. (2001). Racial attitudes and relations at the close of the twentieth century. In Smelser, N., Wilson, W. J., & Mitchell, F. (Eds.), America Becoming: Racial Trends and Their Consequences. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, pp. 264–301.Google Scholar
Bobo, L. D., Charles, C. Z., Krysan, M., et al. (2012). The real record on racial attitudes. In Marsden, P. (Ed.), Social Trends in the United States, 1972-2006: Evidence from the General Social Survey. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, pp. pp.38–83.Google Scholar
Bobo, L. D., & Tuan, M. (2006). Prejudice in Politics: Group Position, Public Opinion, and the Wisconsin Treaty Rights Dispute. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bonam, C., Bergsieker, H. B., & Eberhardt, J. L. (2016). Polluting black space. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 145(11), 1561–1582. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/xge0000226CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bonilla-Silva, E. (2001). White Supremacy and Racism in the Post-Civil Rights Era. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brigham, J. C. (1993). College students’ racial attitudes. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 23(23), 1933–1967. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.1993.tb01074.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chang, L, & Krosnick, J. (2009). “National surveys via RDD telephone interviewing vs. the internet: Comparing sample representativeness and response quality. Public Opinion Quarterly, 73(4), 641–678.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chang, L., & Krosnick, J. (2010). Comparing oral interviewing with self-administered computerized questionnaires. Public Opinion Quarterly, 74(1), 154–167.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, D. W. (1997). The direction of race of interviewer effects among African Americans: Donning the black mask. American Journal of Political Science, 41(1), 309–322.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Devine, P. G., & Elliot, A. J. (1995). Are racial stereotypes really fading? The Princeton trilogy revisited. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21(11), 1139–1150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Devine, P. G., Plant, A., Amodio, D. M., et al. (2002). The regulation of explicit and implicit race bias: The role of motivations to respond without prejudice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82(5), 835–848. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/0022-3514.82.5.835CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ditonto, T. M., Lau, R. R., & Sears, D. O. (2013). AMPing racial attitudes: Comparing the power of explicit and implicit racism measures in 2008. Political Psychology, 34(4), 487–510. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1111/pops.12013CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dovidio, J. F., Kawakami, K., & Gaertner, S. L. (2002). Implicit and explicit prejudice and interracial interaction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82(1), 62–68. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/0022-3514.82.1.62CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Feldman, S., & Huddy, L. (2005). Racial resentment and white opposition to race-conscious programs: Principles or prejudice? American Journal of Political Science, 49, 168–183.Google Scholar
Gates, H. L., Steele, C., Bobo, L. D., et al. (Eds.). (2012). The Oxford Handbook of African American Citizenship, 1965–present. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gilbert, G. M. (1951). Stereotype persistence and change among college students. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 46(2), 245–254. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/h0053696CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gilens, M. (1999). Why Americans Hate Welfare: Race, Media and the Politics of Antipoverty Policy. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hatchett, S., & Schuman, H. (1975). White respondents and race-of-interviewer effects. Public Opinion Quarterly 39, 523–528.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henry, P., & Sears, D. O. (2002). The Symbolic Racism 2000 scale. Political Psychology, 23(2), 253–283. https://doi.org/10.1111/0162-895X.00281CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holbrook, A., Johnson, T. P., & Krysan, M. (2019). Race- and ethnicity-of-interviewer effects. In Lavrakas, P., Traugott, M. W., Kennedy, C., Holbrook, A., de Leeuw, E., & West, B. (Eds.), Experimental Methods in Survey Research: Techniques that Combine Random Sampling with Random Assignment. New York, NY: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., pp. 197–224.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackman, M. (1977). Prejudice, tolerance, and attitudes toward ethnic groups. Social Science Research, 6, 145–169.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, I. R., Petty, R. E., Brinol, P., et al. (2017). Persuasive message scrutiny as a function of implicit-explicit discrepancies in racial attitudes. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 70, 222–234. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1016/j.jesp.2016.11.007CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karlins, M, Coffman, T. L., & Walters, G. (1969). On the fading of social stereotypes: Studies in three generations of college students. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 13(1), 1–16. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/h0027994CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Katz, D., & Braly, K. W. (1933). Racial stereotypes of 100 college students. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 28, 282–290. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/h0074049Google Scholar
Katz, D., & Braly, K. W. (1935). Racial prejudice and racial stereotypes. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 30, 175–193. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/h0059800CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Katz, I., & Hass, R. G. (1988). Racial ambivalence and American value conflict: Correlational and priming studies of dual cognitive structures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 55(6), 893–905. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/0022-3514.55.6.893CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kinder, D. R., & Sanders, L. M. (1996). Divided by Color: Racial Politics and Democratic Ideals. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Krupnikov, Y., Piston, S., & Bauer, N. (2016). Saving face: Identifying voter responses to black candidate and female candidates. Political Psychology, 37(2), 253–273. https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12261CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krysan, M. (1998). Privacy and the expression of white racial attitudes: A comparison across three contexts. Public Opinion Quarterly, 62, 506–544.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krysan, M. (1999). Qualifying a quantifying analysis on racial equality. Social Psychology Quarterly, 62(2), 211–218.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krysan, M. (2000). Prejudice, politics, and public opinion: Understanding the sources of racial policy attitudes. Annual Review of Sociology, 26, 135–168. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.26.1.135CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krysan, M. (2002). Whites who say they’d flee: Who are they and why would they leave?” Demography, 39(4), 675–696. https://doi.org/10.1353/dem.2002.0037CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Krysan, M. (2012a). From color caste to color blind, part I: Racial attitudes in the United States during World War II, 1939–1945. In Gates, H. L., Steele, C., Bobo, L. D., Dawson, M. C., Jaynes, G., Crooms-Robinson, L., & Darling-Hammond, L. (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of African American Citizenship, 1865–present. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 178–194.Google Scholar
Krysan, M. (2012b). From color caste to color blind, part II: Racial attitudes in the United States during the Civil Rights and Black Power eras. In Gates, H. L., Steele, C., Bobo, L. D., Dawson, M.C., Jaynes, G., Crooms-Robinson, L., & Darling-Hammond, L. (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of African American Citizenship, 1865–present. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 195–234.Google Scholar
Krysan, M. (2012c). From color caste to color blind, part III: Contemporary racial attitudes, 1976–2004. In Gates, H. L., Steele, C., Bobo, L. D., Dawson, M. C., Jaynes, G., Crooms-Robinson, L., & Darling-Hammond, L. (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of African American Citizenship, 1865–present. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 235–275.Google Scholar
Krysan, M., Couper, M. P., Farley, R., et al. (2009). Does race matter in neighborhood preferences? Results from a video experiment. American Journal of Sociology, 115(2), 527–559.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Krysan, M., & Crowder, K. (2017). The Cycle of Segregation: Social Processes and Residential Stratification. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krysan, M., & Couper, M. P. (2003). Race in the live and virtual Interview: Racial deference, social desirability, and activation effects in attitude surveys. Social Psychology Quarterly, 66(4), 364–383.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krysan, M., & Couper, M. P. (2006). Race of interviewer effects: What happens on the web? International Journal of Internet Science, 1(1), 17–28.Google Scholar
Kuppens, T., & Spears, R. (2014). You don’t have to be well-educated to be an aversive racist, but it helps. Social Science Research, 45, 211–223.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lamont, M. (2000). The Dignity of Working Men: Morality and the Boundaries of Race, Class, and Immigration. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation and Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Monteith, M. J., Voils, C. I., & Ashburn-Nardo, L. (2001). Taking a look underground: Detecting, interpreting, and reacting to implicit racial biases. Social Cognition, 19(4), 395–417. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1521/soco.19.4.395.20759CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Payne, B. K., Krosnick, J. A., Pasek, J., et al (2010). Implicit and explicit prejudice in the 2008 American presidential election. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46, 367–374. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1016/j.jesp.2009.11.001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rabinowitz, J. L., Sears, D. O., Sidanius, J., et al. (2009). Why do white Americans oppose race-targeted policies? Clarifying the impact of symbolic racism. Political Psychology, 30(5), 805–828.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schuman, H. (2008). Method and Meaning in Polls and Surveys. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Schuman, H., & Bobo, L. (1988). Survey-based experiments on white racial attitudes toward residential integration. American Journal of Sociology 94(2), 273–299.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schuman, H., & Converse, J. (1971). The effects of black and white interviewers on black responses in 1968. Public Opinion Quarterly, 35, 44–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schuman, H., Steeh, C., Bobo, L. D., et al. (1997). Racial Attitudes in America: Trends and Interpretations, (2nd ed.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Sears, D. O., Sidanius, J., & Bobo, L. D. (Eds.). (2000). Racialized Politics: The Debate about Racism in America. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Simmons, A., & Bobo, L. D. (2018). Understanding ‘no special favors’: A quantitative and qualitative mapping of the meaning of responses to the Racial Resentment Scale. DuBois Review: Social Science Research on Race, 15(2), 323–352. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1742058X18000310Google Scholar
Sniderman, P. M., & Piazza, T. (1993). The Scar of Race. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sniderman, P. M., Tetlock, P. E., & Carmines, E. G. (Eds.). (1993). Prejudice, Politics, and the American Dilemma. Redwood City, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Tuch, S. A., & Hughes, M. (2011). Whites’ racial policy attitudes in the twenty-first century: The continuing significance of racial resentment. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 634(1), 134–152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wallsten, K., Nteta, T. M., McCarthy, L., et al. (2017). Prejudice or principled conservatism? Racial resentment and white opinion toward paying college athletes. Political Research Quarterly, 70(1), 209–222. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1065912916685186CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waters, M. C. (1999). Black Identities: West Indian Immigrant Dreams and American Realities. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation and Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, D. C. (2010). Perceptions about the amount of interracial prejudice depend on racial group membership and question order. Public Opinion Quarterly, 74, 344–356.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, D. C., & Brewer, P. (2013). The foundations of public opinion on Voter ID laws: Political predispositions, racial resentment, and information effects. Public Opinion Quarterly, 77(4), 962–984.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, D. C., & Brewer, P. R. (2016). Do frames emphasizing harm to age and racial-ethnic groups reduce support for Voter ID laws? Social Science Quarterly, 97, 391–406. https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.12234CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, D. C., & Davis, D. W. (2011). Reexamining racial resentment: Conceptualization and content. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 634, 117–133.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, D. C., Moore, D. W., McKay, P. F., et al. (2008). Affirmative action programs for women and minorities: Support affected by question order. Public Opinion Quarterly, 73, 514–522.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, W. J., & Taub, R. P. (2006). There Goes the Neighborhood: Racial, Ethnic, and Class Tensions in Four Chicago Neighborhoods and Their Meaning for America. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×