How Racial Empathy Moderates White Identity and Racial Resentment

• In Event: Conceptions of White Identity and Their Role in Contemporary U.S. Politics

Abstract

sing data from the 2016 CCES, as well as the 2016 and 2018 ANES, this paper presents a comprehensive analysis of several purportedly distinct attitudinal constructs: the strength of Whites’ racial identity, racial resentment, and racial empathy. Using multiple groups confirmatory factor analysis, the structure and antecedents of these constructs is presented to show that racial empathy has a distinct and moderating effect on how White identity and racial resentment shape Whites’ attitudes on a variety of attitudinal and policy-related measures.

Authors

• Christopher D. DeSante, Indiana University

• Candis Watts Smith, PennState University