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This study identifies a theoretical mechanism that could potentially affect public university admissions standards in a context of demographic change. I explore how demographic changes at a prestigious public university in the United States affect individuals' evaluations of college applications. Responding to a line graph that randomly displays a freshmen enrollment trend toward a white plurality or an Asian American plurality, white student evaluators lower their minimum class rank standard for admitting white applicants when exposed to an Asian American plurality trend. They also raise the minimum test percentile standard for admitting Asian American applicants. Notably, plurality trend does not affect Asian American student evaluators' minimum standards for recommending admission. Applications differed only by applicant race.

Amidst increasing focus on rising rates of substance abuse and suicide among white Americans and extending prior research on intergroup attitudes and health, this study examines a novel factor associated with psychological distress: disagreement with multiculturalism. Using the Portraits of American Life Study (N = 2,292), logistic regressions indicate that for Whites and Hispanics, increased likelihood of psychological distress (depression, hopelessness and worthlessness) is associated with stronger disagreement with multiculturalism, measured as “If we want to create a society where people get along, we must recognize that each ethnic group has the right to maintain its own unique traditions.” For Blacks, however, attitudes toward multiculturalism are not associated with psychological distress. Future research might determine if these results can be replicated, and if so, identify the causal mechanism(s) at work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extending Blumer’s group position theory into the domain of civic engagement, the present study identifies an intergroup social-psychological attitude linked to charitable giving: perceived immigrant job competition. Using the 2006 Portraits of American Life Study (N = 2,539), binary logistic regression models estimating the odds of giving money to a stranger indicate a negative association with perceived immigrant job competition for White and Black respondents. No association is found for Hispanics, Asians, or those identifying with other ethnoracial categories. Furthermore, race-related affect is found to mediate this association for White respondents, but not Black respondents, further emphasizing the relevance of the sense of dominant group position and the group position theory of racial prejudice. Future research on diversity and civic engagement should include and test individual-level measures associated with the social psychology of intergroup relations, in addition to the population-level measures of ethnic heterogeneity already employed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do Asian Americans view a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants in the USA as related to perceptions of shared interests with other ethnoracial groups? I utilise the National Asian American Survey to test this possibility. Ordinal logistic regressions reveal that higher levels of perceived political commonality with Latinos relate to increased support for the provision of a citizenship path. Similarly, higher perceived political commonality with blacks is positively related to support for a citizenship pathway, suggesting that a civil rights frame, rather than a group competition frame, links immigration reform and black political interests in the minds of Asian Americans. On the other hand, higher levels of perceived political commonality with whites relate to increased opposition to such a pathway. These results indicate that Asian Americans' racial attitudes, in particular their perceptions of political commonality with other racial groups, relate to their opinions on a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants in the USA. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As the White populace in the United States moves toward numerical minority status by 2042, how might Whites respond to impending threat of losing their dominant group position? In particular, how will Whites react at selective, elite universities, where Asians are increasingly prominent and other non-Whites are maintaining or capturing a larger share of enrollments? Drawing on group position theory, I test White commitment to meritocracy as a public policy, using a survey-based experiment (599 California adult residents) to examine the importance grade point average should have in public university admissions. Whites decrease the importance that grade point average should have when Asian group threat is primed. However, White Californians increase the importance that grade point average should have when thinking about group threat from either Blacks or Blacks and Asians simultaneously. Ethnoracial outgroup threat shifts White support for meritocracy in different directions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In an attempt to understand Hispanics’ political incorporation as the United States becomes a “majority-minority” nation, I explore some of the social-psychological processes that shape Hispanics’ political attitudes. Specifically, I draw on the segmented-assimilation literature’s notion of “modes of incorporation” to argue that immigrants develop perceptions of racialized opportunities (PROPs) as they confront America’s segmented opportunity structure. Because of the durability of these racialized mobility trajectories, I propose that PROPs play an important part in the formation of Hispanics’ political attitudes. I test the PROPs mechanism using the 2006 Latino National Survey with a sample of 8,634 Hispanic respondents. Ordinal logistic regression models, estimating Hispanics’ support for school vouchers and government intervention in health care, indicate that PROPs are related to Hispanics’ political attitudes, especially in regard to support for school vouchers. Moreover, this social-psychological mechanism informs the political attitudes of both U.S.-born and foreign-born Hispanics. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

National data indicate that U.S. whites have a higher prevalence of smoking compared to non-whites. Group position theory and public opinion data suggest racial differences in immigration concern. This study examines whether immigration concern mediates the racial difference in smoking. Drawing on the 2012 General Social Survey, the 2012 American National Election Study, and the 2006 Portraits of American Life Study, immigration concern was associated with smoking, controlling for covariates across all three nationally representative surveys. Mediation analysis indicated that immigration concern partially mediated the higher odds of smoking among whites across all surveys. Immigration concern also presents a possible explanation for the healthy immigrant advantage and Hispanic paradox as they pertain to smoking differences.