David Raden

ARE SYMBOLIC RACISM AND TRADITIONAL PREJUDICE PART OF A CONTEMPORARY AUTHORITARIAN ATTITUDE SYNDROME

This research used the General Social Survey for 1988 to investigate the extent to which traditional racial prejudice and symbolic racism had syndromic qualities among white Americans. The correlations between the measures of traditional prejudice and a wide variety of authoritarianism-related social attitudes were often moderately high. However, the associations of the measure of symbolic racism with these attitudes typically were similar. Additionally, the loadings of both types of prejudice on a general attitudinal authoritarianism factor were moderately high. Moreover, the measures of traditional prejudice and symbolic racism had substantial correlations with one another. Thus there was little in the findings to support the characterization by Sears and his associates of symbolic racism as a distinctive racial disposition.

Is Anti-Semitism Currently Part of an Authoritarian Attitude Syndrome?

This study used data from the 1990 General Social Survey to investigate the extent to which anti-Semitism had syndromic relationships with other authoritarianism-related attitudes among American White non-Jews. The correlational and factor analytic connections between four measures of anti-Semitism and the other attitudes were generally weak. There were no clear-cut differences between respondents high and low in education in the strength of these connections. Moreover, when the scores of respondents favorable and unfavorable to Jews were compared on a number ofauthoritarianism-related scales, the differences were usually small. The results suggest a diminished role for anti-Semitism in authoritarian attitude syndromes. This study addresses a neglected question: the degree to which anti-Semitism is currently a part of a broader configuration. Data from the national sample of the 1990 General Social Survey (GSS) are used to establish the extent to which anti-Semitism has correlational and factor analytic associations with other social attitudes that have been theoretically linked to authoritarian attitude syndromes. Research on the current role of anti-Semitism can help to answer questions about such syndromes while at the same time shedding light on the nature of contemporary American attitudes toward Jews. One of the cornerstones of the authoritarian personality conceptualization of the Berkeley group (Adorno, Frenkel-Brunswik, Levinson, & Sanford, 1950) was the notion that the ethnocentric rejection of outgroups was part of a general disposition. Basic to this formulation was the treatment by the Adorno group of anti-Semitism. Dislike of Jews was seen as an integral part of a broad attitudinal syndrome that included not only negative attitudes toward other outgroups, but a large number of conservative attitudes across a wide range of social topics.

Are Scores on Conventional Attitude Scales Confounded with other Measures of Attitude Strength? Findings from the General Social Survey

This research investigated the relations of five strength-related attitude dimensions and scores on a conventional attitude scale that measured attitude toward the traditional female role. The respondents were 837 women who participated in the 1983 General Social Survey. The strength-related dimensions, which resembled attitude properties that have been used as moderators of the attitude-behavior relationship, included attitude importance, adequacy of attitude-relevant information, attitude certainty, degree of concern with the attitude issue, and frequency of thinking about the attitude topic. An analysis of variance showed that for all of the strength-related properties except firmness, the mean attitude scale scores for the different levels of strength varied significantly when the dimensions were used as independent variables. Moreover, there were directional differences in which the mean scale scores were generally greater for the higher levels of strength than for the lower levels. These results contradict experimental findings in which similar attitude dimensions were not confounded with conventional attitude scores.

AUTHORITARIANISM AND OVERT AGGRESSION

High authoritarians gave higher levels of shock than low authoritarians to a trainee confederate of the experimenter when they served as trainers in a Buss-type learning experiment. There was, however, no interaction between scores on a modified F Scale and race of target for the 71 white students. The results, along with earlier findings, provide evidence of generality for authoritarian aggression.

Dogmatism and Conventionality

The scores of 68 undergraduates on Rokeachs Dogmatism Scale correlated significantly with their responses to a conventionality measure, as dogmatism theory would predict. These attitudinal findings are consistent with the results of experimental research on the manifestations of dogmatism and authoritarianism.

Prejudice and Hostile Behavior: A Laboratory Study of an Attitude-Behavior Relationship

Abstract This research examined the relationship between several measures of prejudice toward blacks and a type of overt behavior, shock-giving, directed toward a black. The opportunity to shock either a black or white trainee was given to 69 student subjects, who had previously completed a questionnaire measure of prejudice, in a situation where they served as trainers in a Buss-type learning experiment. The study employed a correlational analysis and an analysis of variance based on a 3×2×2×3 factorial design with three treatment factors: prejudice scale score, sex, and race of victim; and one repeated measure subject factor, trials. There were substantial correlations between both self-rating and peer-rating of prejudice and shock intensity for those who shocked a black. Questionnaire prejudice, however, had low correlations with shock intensity, and there were no significant direct or interaction effects in the analysis of variance.

Ratings of characteristics of ethnic groups by authoritarians and nonauthoritarians when stereotypes vary in favorability.

White non-Jewish participants in the 1990 General Social Survey with low scores on Tolerance of deviation (“Intolerant”), a measure of authoritarianism, rated African Americans more unfavorably than did Tolerant respondents on two traits, intelligence and laziness, when stereotypes about the latter group are unfavorable. But the Intolerant were not more negative in their evaluations than the Tolerant when Jews, a group for whom the stereotypes on these traits are favorable, were rated. The Intolerant rated Jews more favorably on intelligence, and their ratings of laziness did not differ from those by the Tolerant.