Exploring the associations between TRIOS and racial attitudes

Abstract

TRIOS is a model for the dual processes of self-protective and self-enhancing motivations for Blacks that live in a universal context of racism (Jones, 2003). Data have shown that Whites who are high in TRIOS tend to endorse prosocial values. The idea that TRIOS may be a non-reactive measure of racial attitudes in Whites stems from this research. The following studies examine this idea by exploring possible relationships between TRIOS and various explicit (Brigham, 1993) and implicit (e.g., Implicit Association Test; Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998) measures of racial attitudes. Experiment 1 found that Whites who had higher TRIOS levels held more positive explicit but not implicit racial attitudes. The second study, which included Whites and Blacks, found no significant relationship between racial attitudes and TRIOS for Blacks or Whites. However, a significant mean difference occurred suggesting that Whites high in TRIOS showed more positive implicit racial attitudes toward Blacks while Blacks high in TRIOS held less positive implicit racial attitudes towards Whites. In the third study similar but non-significant patterns were found with highly TRIOSic Whites showing more positive racial attitudes and highly TRIOSic Blacks showing less positive racial attitudes. Only minor consistencies were found between the studies. Overall implicit and explicit racial attitude means were generally as predicted though infrequently statically significant. Implications and methodical concerns are discussed.