Anxiety–prejudice links vanish when measured as intergroup bias difference scores.

Evidence

The nature of the outgroup attitude measure was only a significant moderator of the relationship between anxiety and outgroup attitudes, QB(2) = 7.54, p < .05. Contrasts conducted using Quinones, Ford, and Teachout’s (1995) z-test method revealed that studies using intergroup bias (i.e., ingroup attitudes minus outgroup attitudes) as a dependent measure had significantly lower effect sizes (r = .22) than studies using only outgroup evaluations (r = .46, z = 2.13, p < .05) or studies using prejudice scales (r = .56, z = 2.74, p < .05). — Blake M. Riek, Eric W. Mania, and Samuel L. Gaertner, Intergroup Threat and Outgroup Attitudes, 123

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the contrast between difference-score and absolute attitude measures in intergroup relations and to debate over the value of bias scores vs. single-group evaluations (also parallels Greenwald’s IAT scoring critiques).
• QUESTION: Why would anxiety specifically flatten under the difference-score operationalization but not realistic or symbolic threat? Worth chasing whether this is a psychometric artifact (unreliable difference scores) or genuine theory signal.