The People Doth Protest Too Much: Explaining Away Subtle Racism

Abstract

The present study examined whether the length of an individual’s written explanation for an instance of subtle, attributionally ambiguous racism related to their perception of racism, levels of prejudice, and social dominance orientation. Individuals ( n = 51) read a brief vignette describing an instance of subtle racism and then wrote a description explaining what they believed was happening in the situation. Individuals higher in prejudice and social dominance orientation wrote longer situational explanations. Individuals who wrote longer situational explanations were less likely to perceive the situation as racist and more likely to attribute that situation to a chance happening. Finally, longer explanations also contained more situational attributions unrelated to race. As the number of attributions unrelated to race increased, the perception of racism decreased. The present results suggest that longer explanations helped individuals explain away subtle racism.