The Subtlety of White Racism: Helping Behavior and Stereotyping by Whites Toward Black and White Supervisors and Subordinates.
Abstract
The results indicated that when the white subjects were alone with a confederate needing assistance, black partners were helped more than white partners. However, the designated role relationship was a critical factor influencing interracial behavior. In particular, the results revealed that white subjects were more willing to help black subordinates than black supervisors. Black partners of superior status were helped less than comparable white partners, while subordinate blacks received significantly more help than white workers. Thus, whites responded somewhat negatively to blacks who assumed non-traditional superior roles, whereas whites responded positively to blacks assuming traditional subordinate and dependent roles. In addition, on an absolute scale white subjects were willing to evaluate blacks, particularly high ability blacks, quite positively. However, when the relative scores (Partner-Rating minus Self-Rating on identical traits) were employed, black partners were rated less favorably than were white partners. In addition, although subjects would rate high ability white partners as more intelligent and describe them more favorably than themselves, they described high ability blacks as significantly lower in intelligence than themselves and evaluated them less positively. Therefore, it appears that subjects were quite unwilling to subordinate themselves to a black in any way. Consequently, the extent to which a situation allows reaffirmation or contradiction of stereotypic role relationships may be a critical determinant of interracial interaction. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 01, 1977
- Accession Number
- ADA044656
Entities
People
- John F. Dovidio
- Samuel L. Gaertner
Organizations
- University of Delaware