Vague survey wording can make racial prejudice undetectable in response data

Evidence

This study was significant because it went beyond the general finding that atheists are one of the most disliked groups among believers, and revealed a more nuanced picture that gives us clues as to where this dislike comes from. However, the findings in this study were susceptible to a few counterexplanations. First, the distrust measure we used was quite overt. It is possible that, for whatever reason, people may have felt similarly toward both atheists and gays, but felt more comfortable openly voicing distrust of atheists than of gays. In addition, our sample consisted of American adults, overall a quite religious group. To address these concerns, we performed additional studies in a population with considerable variability in religious involvement, but overall far less religious on the whole than most Americans. We studied the attitudes of university students in Vancouver, Canada. To circumvent any possible artifacts that result from overtly asking people about their prejudices, we designed studies that included more covert ways of measuring distrust. We capitalized on a classic judgment task that has been widely used by researchers. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 269 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

The third January student study was prompted by John Duckitt, who wondered if the “nest” of SDO correlations was actually assembled by social desirability effects. Suppose some people are willing to admit bad things about themselves on a survey, but others are relatively reluctant to admit such, or are even unaware of them. If so, then responses to a collection of scales that raise sensitive issues will be glued together to some extent by this “willing-to-look-bad versus try-to-look-good” response style, whether the traits involved really are related. In this light, high SDOs may not be more prejudiced than others, nor more PP-Mad, E-MAD, accepting of rape myths, and so on, but merely less defensive. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 1044 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Pre-1962 survey phrasing ambiguously mapped opposition to integration. — Ilyana Kuziemko and Ebonya Washington, Why Did the Democrats Lose the South?…, 1330; Survey correlations between prejudice scales may be inflated by response style, not real relationships — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 1044; Survey context changes how much prejudice people admit to. — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice: Fifty Years…, 2172 (+5 more)

Related

• Survey correlations between prejudice scales may be inflated by response style, not real relationships (similarity 0.89)
• Overt self-reporting of prejudice is contaminated by social-desirability concerns (similarity 0.83)
• Pre-1962 survey phrasing ambiguously mapped opposition to integration. (similarity 0.82)
• Subtle survey wording can capture emotional intensity separate from valence (similarity 0.81)
• Survey context changes how much prejudice people admit to. (similarity 0.81)
• Respondents who detect a test’s intent shift to socially desirable answering (similarity 0.80)
• Social desirability bias makes present-day racial preference measurement difficult (similarity 0.79)
• Question wording and historical context make cross-year race-attitude survey items non-comparable. (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Agree-response bias can inflate prejudice scale scores artificially #expands (0.85)
• Overt self-reporting of prejudice is contaminated by social-desirability concerns #corroborates (0.85) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 269
• Survey correlations between prejudice scales may be inflated by response style, not real relationships #expands (0.75) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 1044
• Survey context changes how much prejudice people admit to. #expands (0.72) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 2172
• Subtle survey wording can capture emotional intensity separate from valence #expands (0.72) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 1680