An Integrated Threat Theory of Prejudice

Abstract

On the "worst of t imes" side of the ledger is the fact that the g reat legislative in i­\ntiatives that were designed to improve interg roup re lations are becoming rel ics of \nthe past. Certainly this has happened to school desegregation and the war on pov­\nerty, and it appears to be happening with affi rmative action . Of the major legislative \nin itiatives of the 1 960&s;s, on ly one stands unchal lenged today. Americans are sti l l \nstrongly in favor o f civi l rights. Wh ite Americans general ly ag ree with t he premises \nunderlying the other programs, but they increasingly object to the pol icies that are \nused to implement them. In a recent book, Kinder and Sanders ( 1 996) present data \nind icati ng that attitudes toward government pol icies re lated to race are sharply d i­\nvided by race . Nationa l op in ion pol ls ind icate that 90% of African-Americans favor \nracial preferences in h i ring , but on ly 46% of Wh ites favor such pol ic ies. Simi larly, \n80% of African-Americans approve of the use of quotas in col lege admissions, but \non ly 30% of Whites approve of quotas. On race-related pub l ic pol icies such as \nthese, the divide between African-Americans and Wh ites is often as high as 50%. \nFurthermore , Kinder and Sanders bel ieve the opin ion gap between African­\nAmericans and Whites is growing .