WHOSE FAULT IS IT? A SURVEY EXPERIMENT EXAMINING DIFFERENCES IN ATTRIBUTION AND SUPPORT FOR WHITE AND BLACK MEN
Open Access
- Author:
- Hornstein-Platt, Haydn Leigh
- Area of Honors:
- Sociology
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Arts
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Dr. S. Michael Gaddis, Thesis Supervisor
Dr. Stacy Silver, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- race
race relations
attribution
internal attribution
external attribution
level of education
political orientation
social policy
government assistance - Abstract:
- Race has an enormous impact on the mindset and collective culture of the United States. Previous research has established that race impacts housing, employment, healthcare, and educational opportunities, partially as a result of ideologies that favor internal attributions. The present research aimed to examine the relationships between attribution and race, and support for social policy and race, in addition to the impacts of level of education, field of study, and social political orientation. To investigate these relationships, participants were randomly assigned to one of six conditions consisting of a vignette, racial indicators and a series of questions on Amazon Mechanical Turk. Results demonstrated that, in line with traditional American ideology, a majority of respondents made internal attributions for difficult life situations. Internal attributions, causative factors linked to personal characteristics or decisions, were more frequently made than external attributions, the causative factors linked to societal structure. However, liberal respondents, white respondents and female respondents were more likely to make external attributions and to support social policy for black individuals than for white individuals. Social political orientation had the strongest relationship with both attribution by racial condition and support for social policy. The trend of more frequent external attributions and stronger policy support for black individuals than for white individuals is noteworthy, and necessitates further research.