Background

Aversive Racism is a theory proposed by Samuel L. Gaertner & John F. Dovidio (1986) based on the idea that evaluations of racial/ethnic minorities are characterized by a persistent avoiding of any interaction whatsoever with that of other racial and ethnic groups, As opposed to old-fashioned racism

Racism

Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...

, which is characterized by overt hatred for and discrimination against racial/ethnic minorities, aversive racism is characterized by more complex, ambivalent

Ambivalence

Ambivalence is a state of having simultaneous, conflicting feelings toward a person or thing. Stated another way, ambivalence is the experience of having thoughts and/or emotions of both positive and negative valence toward someone or something. A common example of ambivalence is the feeling of...

 racial expressions and attitudes.

Aversive racism is a term coined by Joel Kovel to describe the subtle racial behaviors of any ethnic or racial group act who rationalize their aversion to a particular group based on majority rules and stereotypes. (Dovidio & Gaertner, p.62). People who behave in an aversively racial way have beliefs in egalitarianism, but will often deny their racially motivated behavior, or shift behavior when dealing with a member of a minority group. Most of this behavior is considered to be implicit or subconscious. Though Kovel coined the term, most of the research has been done by John F. Dovidio and Samuel L. Gaertner.

Aversive Racism Studies

In an experiment conducted by Gaertner and Dovidio in 2000, white college students were asked to assess the credentials and to make hiring recommendations for prospective white and black job candidates with either strong, weak, or marginal credentials. The results showed no overt discrimination when the applicants clearly had strong or weak credentials. Signs of aversive racism appeared only when the applicants possessed marginal credentials. Black candidates were recommended more than 20% less than the same white candidates who had the same marginal credentials.http://www.psychwiki.com/images/a/a7/Table_6.1.png
Dovidio and Gaertner showed evidence of aversive racism in the 1970’s and 1980’s with their field research. People from a list of conservative and liberal political parties in Brooklyn, New York were called by a “wrong number” caller, a confederate to the researcher, attempting to get hold of a mechanic to come help them with their broken down car. The confederate called from a pay phone and was out of change to make another call and asked the participant to make the call for them. The independent variable, or the variable the experimenter changed, was the dialect of the confederate to convince the participant that the “wrong number” caller was either White or Black. It was also noted how many people just hung-up the phone when they found it was a wrong number. The results were very interesting.

Conservatives were significantly less helpful to Blacks than Whites, helping Whites out 92% of the time and helping Blacks out 65% of the time (Dovidio & Gaertner, p.69). The liberals helped Whites 85% of the time and Blacks 75% of the time (Dovidio & Gaertner, p.69). However, people from the liberal party hung up prematurely on Blacks 19% versus 3% of the time on Whites, while the conservatives prematurely hung up on 8% of the Blacks and 5% of the Whites (Dovidio & Gaertner, p.69). Such a big percentage gap with the liberals show that they may have a high affinity for an egalitarian society, but they still foster racial prejudices.

Psychology of Aversive Racism

Dovidio and Gaertner introduced three psychological supports for aversive racism. As humans, we are predisposed to cognitive categorization. By categorizing people into different groups, it allows us to see the differences that exist between other groups compared to the groups we've put ourselves in. By recognizing these differences, we are then motivated to control our environment around us when we interact with outgroups. This motivation is desirable because we want our interactions to be positive, especially when interacting with minorities. The most influential psychological support is the socialization of two sets of incompatible values (Whitley &Kite, 2010). Americans, as children, are brought up being taught to have an egalitarian belief system. We want justice and equality for all minorities. We are also taught about the racial traditions that symbolize American history. These two sets of incompatible values conflict with one another, resulting in inconsistent behavior towards members of outgroups. We feel the internal negative affect based on these two sets of values and it comes out in our behaviors and attitudes on other people.

Aversive Racism in Popular Culture

Aversive racism has been hypothesized in the 2008 presidential elections with the emergence of the first biracial candidate, Barack Obama

Barack Obama

Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...

. During the latter half of the campaign, Obama showed a decent lead in the polls ranging anywhere from 2-10%. A survey conducted by Stanford University claimed support for Obama would have been "six percentage points higher if he were white." New York Times journalist, Nicholas Kristof stated that "most of the votes that Mr. Obama actually loses will belong to well-meaning whites who believe in racial equality and have no objections to electing a black person as president -- yet who discriminate unconsciously."