The Distinct Pattern of Relationships Between the Big Five and Racial Resentment Among White Americans

Research on the relationship between the Big Five and prejudice suggests that low agreeableness and low openness to experience are the most consistent personality correlates of prejudice. However, research on this topic has not examined racial resentment (RR) among White Americans, an affectively charged hostility to Blacks rooted in the perception that they lack self-reliance. Based on work suggesting that prejudices like this may have a value-laden component, we argue that the strongest predictors of RR will be those associated with conservatism: conscientiousness and openness. Using three national surveys, we find that conscientiousness and openness are the strongest predictors of RR among White Americans—matching the predictors of ideology but not a stereotyping measure. Extending this, we demonstrate that conscientiousness and openness predict changes in RR over time.