The Symbolic Racism 2000 Scale

Abstract

The Symbolic Racism 2000 Scale (SR2K) is a widely utilized psychological instrument designed to quantify modern expressions of symbolic racism. This construct is understood as a coherent belief system among white Americans that rationalizes racial inequality through non-overtly racist means. The core tenets measured by the SR2K include the conviction that racial discrimination is no longer a significant societal obstacle for Black individuals, that continuing socioeconomic disadvantages are primarily attributable to the unwillingness of Black individuals to take personal responsibility, and consequently, that demands for special treatment or redress are unwarranted and unjustified (Sears, van Laar, Carrillo, & Kosterman, 1997).

Keywords

Symbolic Racism 2000 Scale, Symbolic Racism, racial attitudes, prejudice, political psychology, racial policy preferences, racial discrimination, psychometrics.

Authors

P. J. Henry, D. O. Sears

Purpose

The primary purpose of the Symbolic Racism 2000 Scale is to provide a reliable and valid measure of symbolic racism. It was developed to capture the subtle, modern forms of racial prejudice that emerged following the Civil Rights Movement, which traditional measures of overt racism often fail to detect.

The scale specifically aims to predict policy preferences among white populations, demonstrating its utility in understanding how these underlying beliefs influence support for or opposition to race-targeted policies, such as affirmative action or governmental aid programs designed to address persistent racial inequality.

Construct

The SR2K measures the construct of symbolic racism, which integrates traditional American values (such as individualism and the Protestant work ethic) with underlying anti-Black affect. This construct is structured around four distinct, substantive themes reflected in the scale items:

• Work Ethic and Responsibility for Outcomes: The belief that Black individuals should achieve success through hard work, and that their lack of success is due to personal failings or lack of effort, rather than systemic barriers.
• Excessive Demands: The perception that Black leaders and communities make unreasonable or overly aggressive demands for change or resources.
• Denial of Continuing Discrimination: The rejection of the idea that significant racial discrimination persists in modern society.
• Undeserved Advantage: The feeling that Black individuals receive special treatment or unearned advantages from governmental or societal institutions.

Validity

The Symbolic Racism 2000 Scale has demonstrated strong psychometric properties, particularly concerning validity. It exhibits robust discriminant validity, meaning the scale successfully distinguishes symbolic racism from related but separate constructs, such as older, more blatant forms of racial prejudice and general political conservatism, despite sharing some conceptual foundations with both.

Furthermore, the scale possesses high predictive validity. Research indicates that SR2K scores are significantly better predictors of white respondents’ racial policy preferences—including attitudes toward welfare, school integration, and affirmative action—than are scores derived from traditional racial attitude measures or general political predisposition indices. This predictive power highlights the scale’s effectiveness in operationalizing the specific belief system of symbolic racism.

Reliability

The SR2K is reported to be highly reliable and internally coherent. Internal consistency, typically measured using Cronbach’s alpha, suggests that the various items measuring the four substantive themes of symbolic racism are highly correlated and contribute consistently to the overall scale score. This coherence underscores that symbolic racism functions as a unified and stable belief system among respondents.

Factor Analysis

Each of the scale’s items reflects one of the four substantive themes of symbolic racism: work ethic and responsibility for outcomes, excessive demands, denial of continuing discrimination, and undeserved advantage. While the items are conceptually grouped into these four themes, the scale generally demonstrates high internal coherence, supporting its use as a single, unidimensional measure of the symbolic racism construct in most applications.

The underlying factor structure confirms that the scale measures a single underlying attitude, distinct from both traditional racial attitudes and broader political predispositions, allowing it to effectively explain variation in racial policy preferences.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report psychological scale (Attitude Measure)

Format: Primarily a 4-point Likert scale (Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree), although some items utilize alternative response formats (e.g., 3-point or 4-point scales measuring degree of responsibility or perceived discrimination).

Language Available: English (Primary)

Population Group: General population, primarily focused on measuring attitudes among white respondents.

Age Group: Adolescents (College students) through general adults.

Population Details: Evidence supports its usefulness for both college student and general adult population samples, as well as for minority populations, though its primary focus is on white attitudes toward racial policy.

Test Methodology: Survey methodology employing standardized item administration and specific recoding procedures to ensure comparable scale metrics across items with varying response options.

Keywords

Racial attitudes, modern prejudice, political psychology, psychometrics, discriminant validity, predictive validity, Likert scoring, social justice, race relations.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not provided in source.

Affiliation Email addresses: Not provided in source.

Correspondence Address: Not provided in source.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The initial publication detailing the scale and its psychometrics, known as the Symbolic Racism 2000 Scale, appeared in 2002 (Henry & Sears). Specific details regarding permissions and current usage fees are not provided in the source material; researchers should consult the primary reference or contact the authors for current usage terms.

Reference’s

Henry, P. J., & Sears, D. O. (2002). The symbolic racism 2000 scale. Political Psychology, 23, 253-283.

Sears, D. O., van Laar, C., Carrillo, M., & Kosterman, R. (1997). Is it really the end of racism? The symbolic racism 2000 scale and its validity. Unpublished manuscript, University of California, Los Angeles.

Items of the The Symbolic Racism 2000 Scale

The following items constitute the scale, along with their associated response options and instructions for scoring:

1. It’s really a matter of some people not trying hard enough; if blacks would only try harder they could be just as well off as whites.

• Strongly agree
• Somewhat agree
• Somewhat disagree
• Strongly disagree

2. Irish, Italian, Jewish and many other minorities overcame prejudice and worked their way Blacks should do the same.

• Strongly agree
• Somewhat agree
• Somewhat disagree
• Strongly disagree

3. Some say that black leaders have been trying to push too fast. Others feel that they haven’t pushed fast enough. What do you think?

• Trying to push very much too fast
• Going too slowly
• Moving at about the right speed

4. How much of the racial tension that exists in the United States today do you think blacks are responsible for creating?

• All of it
• Most
• Some
• Not much at all

5. How much discrimination against blacks do you feel there is in the United States today, limiting their chances to get ahead?

• All of it
• Most
• Some
• Not much at all

6. Generations of slavery and discrimination have created conditions that make it difficult for blacks to work their way out of the lower

• Strongly agree
• Somewhat agree
• Somewhat disagree
• Strongly disagree

7. Over the past few years, blacks have gotten less than they

• Strongly agree
• Somewhat agree
• Somewhat disagree
• Strongly disagree

8. Over the past few years, blacks have gotten more economically than they

• Strongly agree
• Somewhat agree
• Somewhat disagree
• Strongly disagree

Scoring Instructions

The following details the standard procedure for combining the items into the final scale score:

• The initial step involves recoding specific items to ensure that higher scores consistently reflect greater levels of symbolic racism.

Recoding Requirements:

• Items 1, 2, 4, and 8 need to be recoded so that a 1 = 4, 2 = 3, 3 = 2, and 4 = 1.
• Item 3 needs to be recoded so that 1 = 3, 2 = 1, and 3 = 2.

Options for combining the recoded items into a final scale score, ranging from simple to precise:

1. Simple Summation: One could simply add the raw scores together for each item, so that each individual has a score that could range from 8 to 31.
2. Averaging Raw Scores: To compensate for any missing data, one could average the raw scores of the completed items.
3. 0 to 1 Scaling (Preferred Method): To compensate for the differences in the number of response alternatives, one could recode each of the items on a 0 to 1 scale. For item #3, a 1 = 1, 2 = 0, and 3 = .50, and for the other items the high response is a 1, the next a .66, the next a .33, and the low response is a 0. (This third technique is the one used in Henry & Sears, 2002.)
4. Standardized Z-Scores: To equate the variability across items, one could create standardized (z) scores for each of the items in the scale, then average the scores.