A team of researchers investigating anti-white sentiments set out to answer an interesting question: How would people react if we took quotes from Adolf Hitler, changed “Jewish to “white” and asked whether they agreed with the statement.
The study was originally presented at the February, 2023 conference of the Society for Open Inquiry in the Behavioral Sciences, according to a post at the Unsafe Science Substack.
In the study, Michael Bernstein, an experimental psychologist at Brown University, and April Bleske-Rechek, a differential and evolutionary psychologist at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, found higher agreement with anti-White sentiments among participants, regardless of their political affiliation.
The study aimed to examine which groups in society are more likely to be targeted for prejudicial attitudes and who is more likely to express them.
The researchers selected three anti-Jewish quotes from Adolf Hitler, three anti-White quotes from Robin DiAngelo, author of “White Fragility,” and three anti-Black quotes from 19th-century American politician Stephen Douglas.
They then created variations of each quote referencing Jewish people, white people, or black people and presented them to 428 college graduates or college students, with participants evaluating the quotes based on their agreement.
Results showed that, for seven of the nine quotes, agreement differed according to the target group, with the highest agreement found in the anti-white condition.
“For the Hitler and DiAngelo quotes we analyzed the interaction between target group and political ideology,” the researchers wrote. “This was significant for all quotes, and we once again looked at the percentage of people who agreed with at least one of the statements… Anti-White sentiment was highest across the board – for liberals, moderates, and conservatives alike. Anti-White sentiment was the highest for liberals compared to other political groups; anti-Jew and anti-Black sentiment was highest for conservatives compared to other political groups.”
Furthermore, anti-white sentiment was the highest for liberals compared to other political groups, while anti-Jewish and anti-black sentiment was highest for conservatives compared to other political groups.
The researchers said the findings highlight the influence of group identity and political ideology on prejudicial attitudes and the need for a broader conversation on tribalism and its consequences.
You can check out the Substack here.
Like the researchers, we also offer an incomplete list of disclaimers about inferences one might draw concerning DiAngelo or people who happen to agree with re-worked Hitler quotes. Nothing in this article is meant to suggest DiAngelo is an evil person. Like the researchers, we repost mainly to show the similarities in tribalistic theories that have, in modern times, become incorporated with Critical Race Theory (CRT), as advocated by DiAngelo.
As the researchers write: “The point is that DiAngelo and Hitler are both advocating an approach that reduces behavior to group membership.”
1 Comment
History is replete with the sort of partisan cherry picking that we see here with the author of this article. Essentially what they do is come in with a preconceived agenda, look at a peer reviewed study that didn’t specify an agenda, and pick and choose which pieces makes the author look “correct.”
It’s deeply indicative of the social media driven culture we live in, in which people have little to no interest in engaging in open minded intellectual discussions based upon facts, they just want to “own” the other.
Comparing Dr Robin D’Angelo to Hitler reflects a fundamental lack of awareness of basic socialization, lack of awareness of culture, lack of historical knowledge, and most important of all, a lack of self awareness. The best advice that can be given for next time is to educate yourself and know what you’re talking about before you publish what you write.
Simply having an opinion on something does not make that opinion informed.