Symbolic racism may decompose into separate attitude factors rather than one coherent belief system

Evidence

Or other subjective fault lines may run through them, such as between a “dominant ideology” about racial stratification (denial of discrimination and poor work ethic) and political resentments (of blacks’ demands and recent gains; Kluegel and Smith 1986; Stoker 1998), or between individualism (blaming blacks’ work ethics) and structuralism (denying structural obstacles; Apostle et al. 1983; Kluegel and Bobo 1993). In other words, there are plausible four-factor or twofactor alternatives to the theory that symbolic racism is, in its entirety, a single coherent belief system. — Christopher Tarman and David O. Sears, The Conceptualization and Measurement…, 22

We have two main conclusions, then. One is that symbolic racism is best interpreted as a single logically and psychologically consistent belief system. And it is distinctively different from other psychological constructs traditionally thought central to the white public’s response to racial politics. The present analyses, however, offer greater nuance about differentiation within the symbolic racism belief system than does previous research. — Christopher Tarman and David O. Sears, The Conceptualization and Measurement…, 228

Categorization

• XREF: Directly bears on the reader’s symbolic-racism measurement question: whether the construct validly measures threat perception as distinct from political attitudes, echoing the reader’s prior note that scale items may overlap conceptually with outcome variables. — connects to: Symbolic racism scales measure a distinct attitude rather than mere conservatism — Christopher Tarman and David O. Sears, The Conceptualization and Measurement…, 192; Individual and structural symbolic racism share a single underlying attitudinal structure — Christopher Tarman and David O. Sears, The Conceptualization and Measurement…, 191; Symbolic racism loads on a statistically distinct factor from older racism forms — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3743 (+5 more)
• QUESTION: If symbolic racism items split between perceived-threat and ideological-resentment factors, which factor actually drives glorification trajectories in the reader’s model?
• DEFINE: Closes the definition of symbolic racism as both internally coherent and distinct from related constructs.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Christopher Tarman and David O. Sears, The Conceptualization and Measurement…, 22; Christopher Tarman and David O. Sears, The Conceptualization and Measurement…, 228

Related

• Symbolic racism measurement is internally coherent and unified. (similarity 0.92)
• Symbolic racism scales measure a distinct attitude rather than mere conservatism (similarity 0.89)
• Symbolic racism’s discriminant validity from allied constructs is empirically testable (similarity 0.89)
• Individual and structural symbolic racism share a single underlying attitudinal structure (similarity 0.88)
• Symbolic racism scales measure a construct distinct from the policy preferences they predict. (similarity 0.87)
• Controversy over symbolic racism measures is empirically moot since all variants predict equally. (similarity 0.87)
• Distinct consequences indicate whether symbolic-racism variants are truly separate constructs. (similarity 0.87)
• Symbolic racism is empirically distinct from old-fashioned racism. (similarity 0.86)
• Symbolic racism loads on a statistically distinct factor from older racism forms (similarity 0.86)
• Christopher Tarman and David O. Sears — The Conceptualization and Measurement of Symbolic Racism (similarity 0.85)
• Different racism constructs predict political outcomes unequally (similarity 0.85)
• Early and recent symbolic racism studies both measured the same four themes (similarity 0.84)
• Symbolic racism explains racial policy preferences independent of conservatism. (similarity 0.84)
• Symbolic racism comprises four coherent belief themes (similarity 0.84)
• Symbolic racism is defined as a four-theme belief system about racial disadvantage and demands (similarity 0.84)

Broader Connections

• Individual and structural symbolic racism share a single underlying attitudinal structure #contradicts (0.85) — Christopher Tarman and David O. Sears, The Conceptualization and Measurement…, 191
• Racial attitudes form several distinct dimensions rather than one unitary prejudice #corroborates (0.80) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3430
• Symbolic racism comprises four coherent belief themes #contradicts (0.80) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 2178
• Symbolic racism scales measure a distinct attitude rather than mere conservatism #expands (0.75) — Christopher Tarman and David O. Sears, The Conceptualization and Measurement…, 192
• Symbolic racism loads on a statistically distinct factor from older racism forms #complicates (0.75) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3743