Journal
JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
Volume 120, Issue 3, Pages 601-625Publisher
AMER PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOC
DOI: 10.1037/pspa0000257
Keywords
hierarchy maintenance; inequality; race-status associations; stereotypes
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Funding
- National Science Foundation
- Princeton University
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This article examines the association between race and status, highlighting the connection of White Americans with high status and Black Americans with low status. The study found that job-based race-status associations can predict racial bias and social dominance orientation, while rank- and attribute-based associations are related to preferences for undoing racial inequality. The research suggests that only White Americans' job-based stratifying associations contribute to maintaining racial status hierarchies.
Race is fraught with meaning, but unequal status is central. Race-status associations (RSAs) link White Americans with high status and Black Americans with low status. RSAs could occur via observation of racially distributed jobs, perceived status-related stereotypic attributes, or simple ranking. Nine samples (N = 3,933) validate 3 novel measures of White = high status/Black = low status RSAs-based on jobs, rank, and attributes. First, RSA measures showed clear factor structure, internal validity, and test-retest reliability. Second, these measures differentially corresponded to White Americans' hierarchy-maintaining attitudes, beliefs, and preferences. Potentially based on observation, the more spontaneous Job-based RSAs predicted interracial bias, social dominance orientation, meritocracy beliefs, and hierarchy-maintaining hiring or policy preferences. Preference effects held after controlling for bias and support for the status quo. In contrast, the more deliberate Rank- and Attribute-based RSAs negatively predicted hierarchy-maintaining beliefs and policy preferences; direct inferences of racial inequality linked to preferences for undoing it. Third, Black = low status, rather than White = high status, associations largely drove these effects. Finally, Black Americans also held RSAs; Rank- or Attribute-based RSAs predicted increased perceived discrimination, reduced social dominance, and reduced meritocracy beliefs. Although individuals' RSAs vary, only White Americans' Job-based stratifying associations help maintain racial status hierarchies. Theory-guided evidence of race-status associations introduces powerful new assessment tools.
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