The Power Approach to Intergroup Hostility

Abstract

The power approach views intergroup hostility as a natural product of competition among groups for scarce resources. The findings of this study show clear support for the operation of this approach in the area of American race relations. Consistent with the model, whites' racial tolerance and support for government policies favorable toward blacks are found linked to black competition measured by the black concentration in the local context and to whites' sense of group identity. The effects of black concentration are nonlinear with a positive but decreasing slope. The effects of the power variables remain significant even after controls for respondents' education, affect toward blacks, and region of origin. In general, the results suggest that white opposition to blacks reflects, in part, a reaction to the loss that governmental policies signify for whites in the ongoing group competition for status, power, and advantage.