Internalization or Polarization: Community-Level Associations of Shifts in White Americans’ Attitudes with Black Americans’ Attitudes

Abstract

We used over 1.4 million Project Implicit responses between 2008 and 2019 to examine whether living in communities where White Americans hold more negative attitudes toward Black individuals predicts internalization versus polarization among Black Americans (i.e., higher versus lower preference for White relative to Black individuals). We constructed two-year estimates of White and Black county-level implicit (automatic) and explicit (conscious, self-reported) preference for White relative to Black individuals. Results from multilevel autoregressive models were consistent with polarization. In a given county, when White residents’ implicit or explicit preference for Whites increased at one wave, Black residents’ implicit and explicit preference for Whites generally decreased at the subsequent wave. Indicators of structural racism inconsistently predicted outcomes, but negative associations between White and Black residents’ relative preference for Whites were robust to inclusion of indicators of structural racism. These results have important implications for Black Americans’ health and intergroup relations.