Symbolic racism loads on a statistically distinct factor from older racism forms

Evidence

One is that symbolic racism may not be very different from older forms of prejudice such as stereotypes or old-fashioned racism (Fazio et al., 1995; Miller, 1994; Raden, 1994; Sniderman & Tetlock, 1986; Weigel & Howes, 1985). Indeed, in our data they were correlated, but the consistently greater impact of symbolic racism compared with older forms of racial antagonism, across a number of different replications, would seem to indicate that it is a distinctive orientation. Moreover, symbolic racism contributes substantial independent variance of its own to racial policy preferences in addition to mediating some of the effects of its putative antecedents (antiblack affect and conservative nonracial values and attitudes). But to test directly for its independence, we conducted unconstrained factor analyses (with oblique rotation) of all racial independent variables in each survey. In brief, in every survey all symbolic racism items loaded on a factor separate from those on which the older forms of racial antagonism loaded. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3743

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains that symbolic racism’s independence is established by factor analysis separating it from overt stereotypes and old-fashioned racism.
• XREF: connects to: Symbolic racism may decompose into separate attitude factors rather than one coherent belief system — Christopher Tarman and David O. Sears, The Conceptualization and Measurement…, 22; Most whites endorse new symbolic racism beliefs while rejecting old-fashioned racism — Christopher Tarman and David O. Sears, The Conceptualization and Measurement…, 41; Distinct consequences indicate whether symbolic-racism variants are truly separate constructs. — Christopher Tarman and David O. Sears, The Conceptualization and Measurement…, 89 (+3 more)