Group Affect and Attribution in Social Policy Opinion

Outgroup attitudes have important effects on policy opinions, but there are conflicting ideas on how to conceptualize and measure affective and cognitive responses to outgroups, and how these different dimensions of evaluation contribute to opinion. The present study analyzes the internal structure of nonpoor whites' emotional responses toward blacks and the poor and their attributions for these groups' disadvantaged status, as well as the influence of group affect and attribution on opinion toward welfare and affirmative action. I find that the internal structure of outgroup affect and attributions varies with the target of the attitude, and that cognitive elements of outgroup attitudes dominate affect in their influence on policy opinion.