VARIABILITY IN AUTOMATIC ACTIVATION AS AN UNOBTRUSIVE MEASURE OF RACIAL-ATTITUDES - A BONA-FIDE PIPELINE

The research examines an unobtrusive measure of racial attitudes based on the evaluations that are automatically activated from memory on th e presentation of Black versus White faces. Study 1, which concerned t he technique's validity, obtained different attitude estimates for Bla ck and White participants and also revealed that the variability among White participants was predictive of other race-related judgments and behavior. Study 2 concerned the lack of correspondence between the un obtrusive estimates and Modern Racism Scale (MRS) scores. The reactivi ty of the MRS was demonstrated in Study 3. Study 4 observed an interac tion between the unobtrusive estimates and an individual difference in motivation to control prejudiced reactions when predicting MRS scores . The theoretical implications of the findings for consideration of au tomatic and controlled components of racial prejudice are discussed, a s is the status of the MRS.