MLK Day and Racial Attitudes: Liking the Group More but Its Members Less. Issue 5 (12th February 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Chopik, William J.; O'Brien, Ed; Konrath, Sara H.; Schwarz, Norbert
• Is Part Of: Political psychology. Volume 36:Issue 5(2015:Oct.)
• Page Start: 559
• Page End: 567
• Publication Date: 2014-02-12
• Subjects: Political psychology -- Periodicals; Political sociology -- Periodicals; 320.019
• DOI: 10.1111/pops.12171
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0162-895X

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main"> <title> <x xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <p>Intuition suggests that the Martin Luther King holiday (MLK Day) should improve racial attitudes toward African Americans. However, its influence may depend on whether African Americans are evaluated as a group or individually. In two studies, we assessed racial attitudes either on MLK Day or on a control day. As might be expected, participants had more sympathetic attitudes towards African Americans as a group on MLK Day compared to control days; however, they evaluated individual African American exemplars more negatively on MLK Day compared to control days, who presumably seemed worse by comparison to the eminent political figure.</p> </abstract>