Group-status threat is the proposed causal mediator of shift-induced conservatism.

Evidence

In addition to providing a direct test of the effect of the majority-minority racial shift on Whites’ political ideology, Study 2 explored potential mediators of the effect. Drawing on recent work (Outten et al., 2012), we examined the potentially mediating role of group-status threat. Further, guided by literature on the antecedents of conservatism (e.g., Jost et al., 2003), we examined perceived system threat, system justification, and uncertainty about the future as potential mediators. We also sought to discern whether individuals’ tendency to endorse conservative ideology in response to perceived majority-minority racial shifts is limited to race-related policies (e.g., immigration) that may be particularly relevant to such shifts, or, rather, whether support for policies not readily associated with race (e.g., military funding) is also affected. — Maureen A. Craig and Jennifer A. Richeson, On the Precipice of a…, 22

Categorization

• XREF: The challenge to whether conservatism effects generalize beyond race-associated policies tests whether the threatened-privilege mechanism is domain-general, which bears on the reader’s cross-identity-axis replication question and connects to Jost et al.’s system-justification theory. — connects to: Perceived racial demographic shifts cause a conservative shift in White Americans through group-status threat. — Maureen A. Craig and Jennifer A. Richeson, On the Precipice of a…, 8; Perceived threat to in-group status evokes greater political conservatism. — Maureen A. Craig and Jennifer A. Richeson, On the Precipice of a…, 12; Perceived demographic shift causal threat to White status shifts policy conservatism — Maureen A. Craig and Jennifer A. Richeson, On the Precipice of a…, 40 (+10 more)
• QUESTION: Whether conservative shift generalizes to non-race policies (military funding) is the key test separating a domain-general privilege-protection response from race-specific outgroup animus.

Related

• Perceived threat to in-group status evokes greater political conservatism. (similarity 0.94)
• Status-threat alleviation should cancel the shift-conservatism effect, isolating threat as the mediator. (similarity 0.92)
• Anticipatory status threat directly shifts reported political identity toward conservatism. (similarity 0.92)
• Removing anticipatory status threat eliminates the conservative reaction to demographic shift. (similarity 0.91)
• Threats can produce targeted or generalized conservative shifts depending on type (similarity 0.89)
• Perceived racial demographic shifts cause a conservative shift in White Americans through group-status threat. (similarity 0.89)
• Perceived demographic shift causal threat to White status shifts policy conservatism (similarity 0.89)
• Demographic threat generalizes conservative shift to race-neutral policy (similarity 0.88)
• Racial status threat may drive conservative shifts even among minorities (similarity 0.87)
• Exposure to information about racial demographic change raises Whites’ status threat and conservatism (similarity 0.86)
• Liberal and conservative participants responded similarly to demographic threat (similarity 0.85)
• Reminding White Americans of shifting racial demographics raises their group status threat. (similarity 0.85)
• Perceived racial demographic shift may push White Americans toward conservatism. (similarity 0.83)
• Reassuring whites that status will persist can blunt the threat of demographic shift. (similarity 0.83)
• Maureen A. Craig and Jennifer A. Richeson — On the Precipice of a Majority-Minority America Perceived Status Threat From the Racial Demographic Shift Affects White Americans’ Political Ideology (similarity 0.83)

Broader Connections

• Perceived demographic shift causal threat to White status shifts policy conservatism #corroborates (0.95) — Maureen A. Craig and Jennifer A. Richeson, On the Precipice of a…, 40
• Anticipatory status threat directly shifts reported political identity toward conservatism. #corroborates (0.90) — Maureen A. Craig and Jennifer A. Richeson, On the Precipice of a…, 69
• Threats can produce targeted or generalized conservative shifts depending on type #expands (0.75) — Maureen A. Craig and Jennifer A. Richeson, On the Precipice of a…, 91
• Authoritarianism shifts with situational threat and status cues #expands (0.72)
• Group-level threats and individual-level threats trigger systematically different responses #qualifies (0.72) — Walter G. Stephan, Oscar Ybarra, Kimberly Rios Morrison, Intergroup Threat Theory, 23