Racism, Aversive

The Aversive Racism Framework

The negative feelings that aversive racists experience do not reflect open hostility or hatred. Instead, aversive racists' reactions may involve discomfort, uneasiness, disgust, and sometimes fear. That is, they find minority group members “aversive,” while they find any suggestion that they might be prejudiced “aversive” as well. Thus, aversive racism may often reflect a pro-in-group rather than an anti-out-group orientation, thereby avoiding the stigma of overt bigotry and protecting a nonprejudiced self-image.

The aversive racism framework also helps identify when discrimination against minority groups will or will not occur. Whereas traditional racists exhibit a direct and overt pattern of discrimination, aversive racists' actions may appear more variable and inconsistent. Sometimes they do not discriminate, reflecting their egalitarian beliefs; other times, they do discriminate, manifesting their negative feelings.

Because aversive racists consciously recognize and endorse egalitarian values and because they truly aspire to be nonprejudiced, they will not discriminate in situations with strong social norms when discrimination would be obvious to others and to themselves. In these contexts, aversive racists will be especially motivated to avoid feelings, beliefs, and behaviors that could be associated with racist intent. However, because aversive racists still possess feelings of uneasiness, these feelings will eventually be expressed, but they will be expressed in subtle, indirect, and rationalizable ways. For instance, discrimination will occur in situations in which normative structure is weak, when the guidelines for appropriate behavior are vague, or when the basis for social judgment is ambiguous. In addition, discrimination will be manifested when an aversive racist can justify or rationalize a negative response on the basis of some factor other than race.

Much of the research on aversive racism has focused on orientations toward African Americans in the United States, but similar processes have been found for the attitudes of members of dominant groups in other countries with strong contemporary egalitarian values but discriminatory histories or policies. Despite its subtle expression, the consequences of aversive racism are as significant and pernicious as those of the traditional, overt form (e.g., the restriction of economic opportunity).

Evidence and Antidotes

Evidence in support of the aversive racism framework comes from a range of paradigms. For instance, in personnel selection decisions in the United States and Puerto Rico, aversive racists do not discriminate on the basis of race when candidates have strong or weak qualifications, some studies show. Nevertheless, they do discriminate against African Americans when the candidates have moderate qualifications. In these circumstances, aversive racists weigh the positive qualities of European American applicants and the negative qualities of African American applicants more heavily in their evaluations, which provides justification for their decisions.

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