Symbolic racism measures may overlap conceptually with their outcome variables

Evidence

One concern is that the indicators of symbolic racism themselves have too much conceptual overlap with the dependent variables in these analyses. If symbolic racism is merely a measure of opposition to the contemporary civil rights agenda concerning special, race-conscious government aid to blacks in the abstract, and the racial policy scales measure opposition to it in concrete form, any association between them might reflect nothing more than that common content. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3659

Categorization

• DEFINE: Precisely spells out the circularity critique: measuring opposition to affirmative action abstractly predicts concrete opposition because both tap the same construct.
• XREF: connects to: Some symbolic racism items overlap tautologically with the policy attitudes they predict — Christopher Tarman and David O. Sears, The Conceptualization and Measurement…, 24; Distinct consequences indicate whether symbolic-racism variants are truly separate constructs. — Christopher Tarman and David O. Sears, The Conceptualization and Measurement…, 89; Symbolic racism scales measure a construct distinct from the policy preferences they predict. — Christopher Tarman and David O. Sears, The Conceptualization and Measurement…, 141 (+1 more)