About half of White survey respondents fail to differentiate Blacks and Whites at all

Evidence

At first blush they yield the expected results: in the 2000 NES, ingroup favoritism on the feeling thermometers (evaluating Whites more favorably than Blacks) was more common (37 percent) than is the reverse (10 percent), and the same was true on a composite stereotype index (59 percent vs. 8 percent). However, the number who failed to differentiate Whites and Blacks at all was almost as large as the number showing ingroup favoritism. On the thermometer scales, 53 percent of the Whites gave exactly the same response to both groups, as did an average of 50 percent on the stereotype scales. The usefulness of thermometer and stereotype measures is therefore uncertain, both because they are so blatant and because about half of the White respondents fail to differentiate Blacks and Whites on them for unknown (possibly social desirability) reasons. — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2201

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

• QUESTION: Why do half of White respondents give identical thermometer scores to both groups? Is it egalitarianism, social desirability, or plain measurement failure? Could be worth investigating the phenomenology.
• XREF: Connects to the psychology of explicit vs implicit measures and to the broader debate on whether self-report prejudice measures are still valid.

Related

• Most White respondents show no ingroup favoritism on blatant thermometer measures (similarity 0.95)
• About half of White respondents rate Blacks and Whites identically on prejudice measures (similarity 0.95)
• Racial group differences in self-esteem reverse the expected hierarchy (similarity 0.79)
• Blacks report higher self-esteem than Whites, and the gap has widened since 1980. (similarity 0.79)
• Social desirability bias does not measurably invalidate prejudice survey measures (similarity 0.79)
• African American perceivers held more negative views yet were more stereotyping-sensitive (similarity 0.79)
• Social desirability bias does not currently invalidate survey measures of racial attitudes. (similarity 0.78)