Document Type
Article
Publication Date
6-12-2023
Abstract
In this article, we present empirical evidence on the cognitive processes underlying racist beliefs and judgement. We draw on 47 life history interviews with former members of White supremacist groups to better understand how social interactions and stimuli from the wider environment inform cognitive pathways or how people think. While we examine both deliberate and intuitive pathways to racist belief, we focus on the intuitive ways that extreme racist beliefs are cognitively processed before, during and after an individual is involved in the White supremacist movement. In doing so, we fill a critical gap in the literature by providing an empirical analysis of intuition. We illustrate the analytic contributions of our approach, and we conclude by drawing on our evidence to elucidate three puzzles, including: (1) why racist beliefs persist; (2) how people draw on implicit beliefs to make explicit judgements; and (3) how explicit beliefs become encoded in intuitive pathways.
Recommended Citation
Latif, M., Simi, P., Blee, K., & DeMichele, M. (2023). Intuitive pathways into racist beliefs. Emotions and Society, 5(3), 348-365. https://doi.org/10.1332/263169021X16841228834058
Peer Reviewed
1
Copyright
The authors/Bristol University Press
Included in
Cognitive Psychology Commons, Politics and Social Change Commons, Quantitative, Qualitative, Comparative, and Historical Methodologies Commons, Race and Ethnicity Commons, Social Control, Law, Crime, and Deviance Commons, Social Psychology and Interaction Commons, Sociology of Culture Commons
Comments
This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Emotions and Society, volume 5, issue 3, in 2023 following peer review. This article may not exactly replicate the final published version. The definitive publisher-authenticated version is available online at https://doi.org/10.1332/263169021X16841228834058.