1/n One of the goals of my recent survey was to get a better understanding of this phenomenon.
2/n In the end, I find that the strongest predictor of rating racial minorities more warmly than whites are feelings of white (moral) shame, followed by white-directed anger.
3/n Here is how I measured these variables (which were taken from previous literature on collective moral emotions)
4/n As predicted by existing theory, collective moral shame also has large indirect effects (about a 1/3 of its total effects) via ingroup-directed anger.
5/n Some of you might be wondering the diff between 'shame' and 'guilt'. The distinction between the two has been a matter of scholarly debate. And the two emotions tend to be moderately to highly correlated (r=0.82 in the current data). But they are, in fact, distinct emotions.
6/n The best way I can explain it is that feelings of guilt tend to follow from neg. appraisals of immoral ingroup *actions* or *behaviors*. Feelings of shame tend to follow from negative *global* appraisals of ingroup moral *character*. For example, I can feel 'guilty' that..
7/n ...I stole from someone. And I can also feel ashamed to the extent that I perceive that this reflects my moral character (i.e. I feel guilty for stealing--> and I'm a bad/immoral person because I stole).
8/n Thus, theoretically speaking, 'white shame' is linked to appraising whites as a whole as suffering from a moral defect. Such motivates a desire to morally distance (socially and psychologically) oneself from one's ingroup--which is why shame tends to elicit..
9/n feelings of anger towards one's ingroup as well as a wide array of pro-outgroup behaviors. In the absence of shame, guilt tends to motivate more limited attempts at correcting for the wrongful ingroup *actions* (as opposed to atoning for its immoral character as a whole)
10/n Some have thus argued that the prosocial effects of guilt are more superficial--that it only predicts support for 'token' compensatory measures directed at specific outgroups. And, indeed, while guilt tends to significantly predict pro-black policies, I find that shame...
11/n .. predicts such policies AND also support for policies that have nothing to do with assisting blacks (such as support for large increases in immigration; preferring non-euro to euro immigrants).
12/n Anyways, just thought I'd give you all sneak peek at some of my dissertation research.
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