Aversive Racism in Spain--Testing the Theory

This study applies the aversive racism framework to Spain and tests whether aversive racism depends on intergroup contact. Relying on a 3 (qualifications) by 3 (ethnicity) experiment, this study finds that aversive racism is especially pronounced against the Mexican job applicant, and emerges among those who held overtly positive attitudes toward immigrants. Friendships with Latinos predicted decreased overt prejudice yet exacerbated aversive racism. Exposure to immigrants in one’s neighborhood, in turn, predicted overt prejudice but was unrelated to aversive racism. These results suggest that (i) aversive racism emerges in Spain and against some immigrants, (ii) overt attitudes do not reliably reflect subtle biases, and (iii) among this sample, intergroup contact does not improve deep prejudices and is limited to affecting overt prejudice against out-groups only.