Hidden Racial Anxiety in an Age of Waning Racism

[Comrade Grumpy]

17. The most traditionalist whites are the most freaked out.

"White born-again Protestants and white southerners, two overlapping groups, register both the highest indirect measures of anxiety about racial changes in the country and the strongest social-desirability-bias effect. When asked by a telephone interviewer directly about whether an America that is not mostly white bothers them, only 15 percent of white born-again Protestants are willing to agree. But that number climbs a stunning 35 percentage points when the question is posed indirectly. Similarly, the difference between the direct and indirect question among white southerners is 26 percentage points, 16 percent when asked directly but 42 percent when asked indirectly."

And even they know it's not cool to express certain sentiments out loud, thus the high bias effect.

Somebody once gave me world history in a nutshell: New people came. Things changed.