They’re all out to get me! Assessing inter-group competition among multiple populations

Abstract

ABSTRACT With the changing demography of the United States, there has been a significant growth in the literature focused on inter-group attitudes. While this has advanced our understanding of how pervasive negative inter-group attitudes are among racial and ethnic populations, little work has been able to explore these attitudes across multiple populations. This is a significant drawback, as it prevents the ability to establish any frame of reference when examining any specific relationship among populations under study. Drawing on the 2008 Collaborative Multiracial Political Study (CMPS), we examine perceptions of both intra- and inter-group competition among Latinos, Blacks, Asian Americans, and Whites. Our research design makes four important contributions to the literature: (1) we examine the correlation between perceptions of competition across multiple racial groups simultaneously; (2) we include a measure of internal-competition to test whether perceptions of competition with one’s own group lead to higher levels of perceived competition with outside groups; (3) we test the relative impact of real and perceived neighborhood diversity on perceptions of competition; and finally, (4) we examine the relationship between perceived competition and other racial attitudes to gain a better understanding of whether perceptions of competition should be interpreted as evidence of inter-group tension or conflict.