Conservatism, Racial Intolerance, and Attitudes toward Racial Assimilation Among Whites and American Indians

Abstract

Among samples of adult whites and American Indians in Seattle conservatism as measured by the Wilson-Patterson scale was inversely related to educational attainment, directly related to age, somewhat more evident among females than males, and not related to income. Factor analysis revealed four readily interpretable dimensions of conservatism among the whites (family and motherhood, religious factor, racial factor, and radical counterculture factor), but only two clearly interpretable factors among the Indians (religious factor, radical counterculture factor). The anticipated greater conservatism of the Indians did not appear; their cumulative conservatism scores were comparable to those of whites. The correlation between conservatism and support for Indian assimilation was positive, and stronger for whites than for Indians. There was a racial difference in the relation between conservatism and racial intolerance; among whites the conservatives were most likely to give intolerant responses about Indians, but among Indians there was no relationship between conservatism and antiwhite sentiments. Results suggest that whites with intolerant feelings about Indians do want Indians to “join the mainstream” of American society, but reject the possibility of close association with Indians for their own children.