The role of self-image maintenance on White Americans' conceptions racism

The manner in which White Americans conceive of racism may be influenced by the desire to maintain a positive view of the self. Specifically, White Americans may prefer to conceive of racism as emerging from the attitudes of specific individuals as opposed to emerging from the operation of social policies and procedures because the latter (institutional) conception of racism, more so than the former (individual) conception of racism, may threaten their self-image by connoting the existence of White racial privilege. In support of this hypothesis, Study 1 found that perceptions of White privilege were better predicted by Whites' willingness to label examples of institutional discrimination as indicative of racism than by their willingness to label examples of individual discrimination as indicative of racism. Study 2 found that perceptions of White privilege increased when White participants were primed to think of racism in institutional as opposed to individual terms. Studies 3 and 4 found that when the need maintain a positive view of self was satisfied by a self-affirmation manipulation, White participants' conception of racism broadened to include institutionally generated discrimination as indicative of racism; absent a self-affirmation Whites were less willing to consider institutionally generated discrimination as indicative of racism. In addition, conceptions of individual racism were unaffected by self-affirmation suggesting that only an institutional conception of racism threatens White American's self-image.