White guilt scores skew low and most Whites deny feeling guilty

Evidence

We examined the mean for the White guilt scores to test whether feelings of White guilt exist today. Possible scale scores ranged from 1 to 5, with low scores indicating less guilt. The mean (M = 2.12, SD =.72) and median (Mdn = 2.06) revealed that most participants disagreed that they felt White guilt. The range was from 1.0 to 4.5, indicating that some participants scored relatively high in guilt and that the distribution was relatively normal (kurtosis = .42, skewness = .62). Although the average disagreement with each item was 33%, only 6% reported that they strongly disagreed on all of the questions. Women were marginally more likely to report White guilt than were men (M = 2.20 and 1.91, SD = . and .65, respectively), t(100)= 1.82 p = .07. — Janet K. Swim and Deborah L. Miller, White Guilt, 53

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Whites feeling collective guilt may attempt actual compensation or partial reparation to restore equity — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt: International…, 470; White Americans largely failed to endorse collective guilt as of 1972 — Janet K. Swim and Deborah L. Miller, White Guilt: Its Antecedents and…, 25; White guilt stays low partly because privilege is hard to detect as an absence — Janet K. Swim and Deborah L. Miller, White Guilt: Its Antecedents and…, 134 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• White guilt stays low partly because privilege is hard to detect as an absence #expands (0.90) — Janet K. Swim and Deborah L. Miller, White Guilt, 134
• White guilt correlates with belief in White privilege and anti-discrimination awareness #corroborates (0.80) — Janet K. Swim and Deborah L. Miller, White Guilt, 14