Post-civil-rights attitude-behavior gaps birthed modern prejudice theories

Evidence

The impetus to revisit Allport’s discussion of “inner conflict” was an effort to address a perplexing set of research findings concerning expressions of prejudice in the wake of the legislative and normative changes that made overt expressions of prejudice both illegal and socially taboo. Social scientists were struggling to explain the disparity between people’s reports of their racial attitudes (i.e., what they say) and their behavior (i.e., what they do; see Crosby, Bromley, & Saxe, 1980). That is, although White Americans often reported relatively positive attitudes toward Black Americans on surveys, their behaviors often belied these statements and revealed substantial evidence of prejudice – perhaps direct evidence of the “split between reason and prejudice.” — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2089

Categorization

• XREF: Direct link to the vault’s existing Allport reassessment and contact-theory claims — this is the documented empirical engine behind modern (implicit/aversive) prejudice constructs.