The Roles of Entitativity and Collective Blame in Conservative Opposition Toward BLM and Anti-Racism

Abstract

Across three studies (N = 995) we demonstrate that political conservatism is associated with collective blame judgments toward the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement for an individual act of protest violence, and perceptions of BLM as entitative mediate this relationship. Study 2 replicated and extended this model and found that political conservatism was associated with weaker support for police reform, the BLM movement, and greater prejudice toward BLM protesters and Black Americans. Study 3 replicated the previous studies and found that Black and White racial identification moderated all relationships in the model. Our findings provide a preliminary model for understanding psychological mechanisms driving opposition to the BLM movement in particular and anti-racist social movements more generally.