Scapegoating as a Form of Color-Blind Racism: Do African American and Latino Men Receive Harsher Punishment in the Workplace?

Author

Brittany Sievers, Southern Illinois University CarbondaleFollow

Date of Award

9-1-2020

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Greer-Medley, Tawanda

Abstract

The purpose of both Study 1 and Study 2 was to experimentally examine the ways in which non-Latinx, White, European American individuals just world beliefs and color-blind racism may predict scapegoating behaviors directed at Black, African American and Brown, Latino men in the workplace. Participants were recruited via Amazon Mechanical Turk Prime. The main hypothesis for Study 1 was that just world beliefs would positively predict shame and guilt, shame and guilt would positively predict discipline, and that color-blind racism would mediate the relationship between shame and guilt and discipline. The overall scapegoating model was not supported, but individual pathways were significant. The main hypothesis for Study 2 was that just world-beliefs would positively predict threat of loss, threat of loss would positively predict discipline, and that color-blind racial ideology would mediate the positive relationship between threat of loss and discipline. The overall scapegoating model was not supported but the significance of individual pathways is discussed below. For Study 1 I found partial support for racial differences in discipline, but this was not found in Study 2. However, I did find that participants who were threatened with job loss in Study 2 assigned harsher discipline. In both Study 1 and Study two it was found that color-blind racism predicts harsher discipline. Future research and implications are discussed.