The Role of Threats in the Racial Attitudes of Blacks and Whites

TLDR

Integrated threat theory synthesizes prior research linking realistic, symbolic, and anxiety threats to intergroup attitudes. The study aimed to examine how Black and White students’ attitudes toward the other racial group are shaped by integrated threat theory. Researchers applied integrated threat theory within a structural equation modeling framework to assess attitudes of Black and White students. Structural equation modeling revealed that realistic, symbolic, and intergroup anxiety threats predicted attitudes for both groups, with negative contact, ingroup identity, conflict perceptions, status inequality, and stereotyping effects mediated by these threats, and the model explained more variance in Whites’ negative attitudes toward Blacks than in Blacks’ negative attitudes toward Whites.

Abstract

This study employed the integrated threat theory of intergroup attitudes to examine the attitudes of Black and White students toward the other racial group. This theory synthesizes previous research on the relationships of threats to intergroup attitudes. Structural equation modeling revealed that for both racial groups, realistic threats, symbolic threats, and intergroup anxiety predicted attitudes toward the other group. To varying degrees, the effects of negative contact, strength of ingroup identity, perceptions of intergroup conflict, perceived status inequality, and negative stereotyping on negative racial attitudes were mediated by the three threat variables. The model accounted for more variance in the negative attitudes of Whites toward Blacks than in the negative attitudes of Blacks toward Whites. The implications of these findings are discussed.