This study explored the developmental correlates of undergraduates’ current racial attitudes and two factors involved in motivation to control prejudiced reactions—concern with acting prejudiced and restraint to avoid dispute. A questionnaire assessed the frequency and nature of participants’ childhood experiences with Blacks as well as perceptions of their parents’ racial attitudes. Results suggest that automatically activated attitudes may be continually updated, whereas factors involved in motivation to control prejudiced reactions remain related in adulthood to earlier childhood experiences. Positive attitudes were associated only with positive interactions when they were recent (high school), whereas participants’ reports of greater concern were associated with more positive interactions at all school levels and with perceptions that their parents were unprejudiced. Greater restraint was associated with delayed and infrequent contact, more negative interactions during middle school, and more parental prejudice.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Aboud, F. E. (1988). Children and prejudice. New York: Blackwell.
2.
Aboud, F. E. , & Doyle, A. B. (1996). Parental and peer influences on children’s racial attitudes. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 20, 371-383.
3.
Aiken, L. S. , & West, S. G. (1991). Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
4.
Allport, G. W. (1954). The nature of prejudice. Cambridge, MA: Addison-Wesley.
5.
Carlson, J. M. , & Iovini, J. (1985). The transmission of racial attitudes from fathers to sons: A study of Blacks and whites. Adolescence, 20, 233-237.
6.
Davey, A. G. (1983). Learning to be prejudiced: Growing up in multiethnic Britain. London: Edward Arnold.
7.
Devine, P. G. (1989). Stereotypes and prejudice: Their automatic and controlled components. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 5-18.
8.
Dunton, B. C. , & Fazio, R. H. (1997). An individual difference measure of motivation to control prejudiced reactions. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23, 316-326.
9.
Fazio, R. H. (1990). Multiple processes by which attitudes guide behavior: The MODE model as an integrative framework. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 23, pp. 75-109). New York: Academic Press.
10.
Fazio, R. H. (1995). Attitudes as object-evaluation associations: Determinants, consequences, and correlates of attitude accessibility. In R. E. Petty & J. A. Krosnick (Eds.), Attitude strength: Antecedents and consequences (pp. 247-282). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
11.
Fazio, R. H. , & Dunton, B. C. (1997). Categorization by race: The impact of automatic and controlled components of racial prejudice. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 33, 451-470.
12.
Fazio, R. H. , Jackson, J. R., Dunton, B. C., & Williams, C. J. (1995). Variability in automatic activation as an unobtrusive measure of racial attitudes: A bona fide pipeline?Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 1013-1027.
13.
Fazio, R. H. , & Towles-Schwen, T. (1999). The MODE model of attitude-behavior processes. In S. Chaiken & Y. Trope (Eds.), Dual process theories in social psychology (pp. 97-116). New York: Guilford.
14.
Gaertner, S. L. , & Dovidio, J. F. (1986). The aversive form of racism. In J. F. Dovidio & S. L. Gaertner (Eds.), Prejudice, discrimination, and racism (pp. 61-89). Orlando, FL: Academic Press.
15.
Gaertner, S. L. , Dovidio, J. F., Rust, M. C., Nier, J. A., Banker, B. S., Ward, C. M., Mottola, G. R., & Houlette, M. (1999). Reducing intergroup bias: Elements of intergroup cooperation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76, 388-402.
16.
Hirt, E. R. , McDonald, H. E., & Erickson, G. A. (1995). How do I remember thee? The role of encoding set and delay in reconstructive memory processes. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 31, 379-409.
17.
Islam, M. R. , & Hewstone, M. (1993). Dimensions of contact as predictors of intergroup anxiety, perceived out-group variability, and out-group attitude: An integrative model. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 19, 700-710.
18.
Jackson, J. R. (1997). Automatically activated racial attitudes. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Indiana University.
19.
Katz, P. A. (Ed.). (1976). The acquisition of racial attitudes in children. In Towards the elimination of racism (pp. 125-153). New York: Pergamon.
20.
Katz, I. , & Hass, R. G. (1988). Racial ambivalence and American value conflict. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 55, 893-905.
21.
McConahay, J. B. (1986). Modern racism, ambivalence, and the Modern Racism Scale. In J. F. Dovidio & S. L. Gaertner (Eds.), Prejudice, discrimination, and racism (pp. 91-125). Orlando, FL: Academic Press.
22.
Mosher, D. L. , & Scodel, A. (1960). Relationships between ethnocentrism in children and the ethnocentrism and authoritarian rearing practices of their mothers. Child Development, 31, 369-376.
23.
Pettigrew, T. F. (1986). The intergroup contact hypothesis reconsidered. In M. Hewstone & R. Brown (Eds.), Contact and conflict in intergroup encounters. Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell.
24.
Pettigrew, T. E. (1997). Generalized intergroup contact effects on prejudice. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23, 173-185.
25.
Pettigrew, T. F. (1998). Intergroup contact theory. Annual Review of Psychology, 49, 65-85.
26.
Rohan, M. J. , & Zanna, M. P. (1996). Value transmission in families. In C. Seligman, J. M. Olson, & M. P. Zanna (Eds.), The psychology of values: The Ontario symposium (Vol. 8, pp. 253-276). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
27.
Schofield, J. (1982). Black and White in school: Trust, tension or tolerance?New York:Praeger.
28.
Stephan, W. G. (1987). The contact hypothesis in intergroup relations. In C. Hendrick (Ed.), Group processes and intergroup relations (pp. 13-40). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
29.
Stephan, W. G. , & Stephan, C. W. (1985). Intergroup anxiety. Journal of Social Issues, 41, 157-175.
30.
Wood, P. B. , & Sonleitner, N. (1996). The effect of childhood interracial contact on adult anti-Black prejudice. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 20, 1-17.
31.
Zanna, M. P. , Fazio, R. H., & Ross, M. (1994). The persistence of persuasion. In R. C. Schank & E. Langer (Eds.), Beliefs, reasoning, and decision making: Psycho-logic in honor of Bob Abelson (pp. 347-362). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
