Year: 2021
Type: preprint
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: What aspects of attitudes toward social out-groups predict behavior toward those groups? Social attitudes research typically links favorability toward social out-groups to engagement in intergroup behaviors: the stronger your (un)favorability toward a group, the more costly behaviors you should engage in, concerning that group. But many people make strongly-valenced favorability statements about minoritized out-groups without engaging in corresponding costly actions. We investigate subjective attitude importance as a competing predictor of costly intergroup behaviors. When white respondents rate their attitudes toward minoritized racial out-groups as more personally important to them, they are more likely to give up real money to: (1) prevent biased attitude signaling, (2) preserve their reputations, and (3) increase charitable donation to an out-group-supporting nonprofit. Finally, we find that attitude measurements that centered personal relevance better explained variance in costly behavior than generic favorability or importance measurements. These results indicate that measuring subjective attitude importance, with emphasis on the personal relevance of the attitude, improves prediction of supportive and discriminatory behaviors toward minoritized racial out-groups.
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Reduced inequalities
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4212801638