Taking Race Off the Table: Agenda Setting and Support for Color-Blind Public Policy.
Whites are theorized to support color-blind policies as an act of racial agenda setting-an attempt to defend the existing hierarchy by excluding race from public and institutional discourse. The present analysis leverages work distinguishing between two forms of social dominance orientation (SDO): passive opposition to equality (SDO-E) and active desire for dominance (SDO-D). We hypothesized that agenda setting, as a subtle hierarchy-maintenance strategy, would be uniquely tied to high levels of SDO-E. When made to believe that the hierarchy was under threat, Whites high in SDO-E increased their endorsement of color-blind policy (Study 1), particularly when the racial hierarchy was framed as ingroup advantage (Study 2), and became less willing to include race as a topic in a hypothetical presidential debate (Study 3). Across studies, Whites high in SDO-D showed no affinity for agenda setting as a hierarchy-maintenance strategy.
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA rchow@andrew.cmu.edu.
Rosalind M
RM
Chow
New York University, New York City, USA.
Eric D
ED
Knowles
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001290:Attitude; D005260:Female; D006608:Hierarchy, Social; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011640:Public Policy; D063505:Racism; D012930:Social Dominance; D044465:White People; D055815:Young Adult
agenda setting; color-blind policy; hierarchy maintenance; social dominance orientation