Perceptions of Anti-White Discrimination: Whites' Ego-defensive Response to Racial Progress.

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Recent trends suggest that Whites are increasingly identifying themselves as victims of racial discrimination. Why might this be occurring? I argue that Whites' perceptions of anti-White discrimination are a response to racial progress: minorities beginning to occupy high status and high power positions traditionally occupied by Whites. I assert that Whites are threatened by racial progress. Threat causes Whites to feel worse about themselves (experience lowered implicit self-worth), and they compensate for decreased self-worth by perceiving greater amounts of discrimination. Four studies provide support for these hypotheses. A survey confirms that the more racial progress Whites perceive, the more anti-White prejudice and discrimination they report. An experimental study verifies the causal direction of the hypothesized effect; Whites primed with racial progress, by reading an article highlighting racial minorities' achievements, report more anti-White and personal experiences with discrimination than those who read a control article. Another experimental study examines the extent to which individual differences in endorsement of the status hierarchy shape perceptions of discrimination. Whites most committed to the status hierarchy perceive the greatest amount of anti-White discrimination and the greatest evidence of threat (lower implicit self-esteem) after reading about racial progress. A final study manipulates self-threat by using a self-affirmation procedure. This study demonstrates that the effects of status hierarchy endorsement on anti-White discrimination perceptions are mitigated when the self is affirmed. Studies 3 and 4 thus provide support for the proposition that racial progress is threatening to Whites (particularly to those who endorse status legitimizing beliefs). Together these studies suggest that when racial minorities advance in society, Whites are more inclined to see their group as suffering from racial discrimination. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for policies designed to remedy social inequality.