In-group positivity independently predicts out-group hostility beyond threat and emotion measures

Evidence

To examine whether in-group positivity uniquely predicted outgroup negativity and racial slurs, two logistic regression analyses were conducted (see Table 9.6). In each analysis, positivity toward whites, positivity toward racially aware whites, realistic threat, symbolic threat, positive emotion, and negative emotion were entered simultaneously as predictors. When the criterion was negativity toward minorities, all variables emerged as significant predictors, except for positivity toward racially aware whites. When the criterion was racial slurs, positivity toward whites and negative emotion were the only significant predictors. Thus, positivity toward whites made a unique contribution to predicting both negativity toward minorities and racial slurs. — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 1072

Categorization

• XREF: Directly relevant to Allport’s contention that prejudice is not merely not-liking but requires structural theory of how in-group attachment and out-group rejection interlock.
• QUESTION: What distinguishes ‘racially aware whites’ as a target from ‘whites’? Positivity toward the former predicted no hostility — worth chasing the mechanism, since it hints prejudice attaches to the generic category, not the role-marked one.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 1072