Different racism constructs predict political outcomes unequally

Evidence

The symbolic racism perspective has two empirical implications, then. First, it argues in favor of taking seriously the differences across types of racism, rather than assuming they are all merely different indicators of a common underlying racial antagonism. Indeed, there is persuasive evidence that the underlying factorial structure of these racial attitudes yields at least two correlated factors, old-fashioned and symbolic racism. Second, it would argue that symbolic racism should have strong political effects, while these older forms of racial antagonism are likely to have rather weak ones. There have been few rigorous comparisons between types of racism in previous research, but when assessed individually the older forms generally have not had very strong effects. These weak effects do not necessarily mean that racism is a weak force in American politics; they may just reflect looking in the wrong place for its effects, and so underestimating its effects on whites’ political thinking. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3616

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The move from ‘racism has weak effects’ to ‘we are measuring the wrong construct and so underestimate it’ is a genuinely reflexive epistemic point about weak effects possibly indexing poor measurement, not weak underlying force.
• XREF: connects to: Old-fashioned racism weakly predicts politics; symbolic racism strongly does — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3616; Racism theories divide into ideology-focused and structural-inequality approaches — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1876; Symbolic racism explains racial policy preferences independent of conservatism. — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice: Fifty Years…, 2179 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Old-fashioned racism weakly predicts politics; symbolic racism strongly does #exemplifies (0.95) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3616
• Symbolic racism explains racial policy preferences independent of conservatism. #exemplifies (0.90) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 2179
• Racism theories divide into ideology-focused and structural-inequality approaches #expands (0.85) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1876
• Symbolic racism may coexist comfortably with stated belief in equal opportunity #qualifies (0.85) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2186
• Symbolic racism loads on a statistically distinct factor from older racism forms #expands (0.85) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3743
• Symbolic racism scales measure a construct distinct from the policy preferences they predict. #expands (0.85) — Christopher Tarman and David O. Sears, The Conceptualization and Measurement…, 141
• Symbolic racism scales measure a distinct attitude rather than mere conservatism #expands (0.82) — Christopher Tarman and David O. Sears, The Conceptualization and Measurement…, 192
• Symbolic racism may decompose into separate attitude factors rather than one coherent belief system #qualifies (0.78) — Christopher Tarman and David O. Sears, The Conceptualization and Measurement…, 22
• Racism exists as a variable spectrum, not a single invariant form #qualifies (0.72)