Highly educated Whites’ lower prejudice scores may reflect dissembling, not tolerance

Evidence

This contrast has brought considerable attention to the issue of the measurement of prejudice. Allport, as far as I can tell, was relatively unconcerned about the validity of standard measures of prejudice, although he admitted that prejudice is an “embarrassing” topic for people, and that estimating the prevalence of prejudice requires careful consideration of specific question wording (ch. 5, pp. 74–7). How the universality of the norm of equality produces social desirability biases in expressed prejudice has been a prominent concern of social psychology since Allport wrote his classic book. To avoid social censure, racially prejudiced Whites may express falsely tolerant attitudes. Some claim that even the lower levels of prejudice expressed by highly educated Whites merely reflect sophisticated dissembling, not greater tolerance (Jackman & Muha, 1984). — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2171

Allport, as far as I can tell, was relatively unconcerned about the validity of standard measures of prejudice, although he admitted that prejudice is an “embarrassing” topic for people, and that estimating the prevalence of prejudice requires careful consideration of specific question wording (ch. 5, pp. 74–7). How the universality of the norm of equality produces social desirability biases in expressed prejudice has been a prominent concern of social psychology since Allport wrote his classic book. To avoid social censure, racially prejudiced Whites may express falsely tolerant attitudes. Some claim that even the lower levels of prejudice expressed by highly educated Whites merely reflect sophisticated dissembling, not greater tolerance (Jackman & Muha, 1984). — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2171

Categorization

• QUESTION: Is Jackman & Muha’s claim that educated Whites merely dissemble still seriously defended, or has it been undermined by studies showing education genuinely predicts tolerance?
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s general interest in how survey methods and social desirability distort measurement of sensitive attitudes, as in older work on respondent-interviewer race effects.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2171