The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact white affect toward African Americans has on whites' racial policy opinions. The study also identifies the difficulty of measuring affect in the traditional feeling thermometer. Moreover, the study introduces and tests a new method for measuring affect that improves interpersonal comparability of reported affect by anchoring the respondents' self-placements. The study investigates the changes in the relationship between white affect toward African Americans and racial policy opinions of presidential election years between 1964 and 2008. Furthermore, the study tests a new method for measuring affect by having respondents rate where they believe groups representing points on an ordinal scale would belong on the scale. The method allows for an adjustment of the respondents' self-placement in relation to where the respondent places the group. The findings contained here show that affect can be an important predictor of white racial policy opinion and the strength of affect can vary over time. In addition, the measurement of affect can be improved by utilizing anchoring objects in a survey to clarify the ordering of the scale for the respondents, as well as allowing for a reallocation of scores.
","abstract_html":"<p>The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact white affect toward African Americans has on whites' racial policy opinions. The study also identifies the difficulty of measuring affect in the traditional feeling thermometer. Moreover, the study introduces and tests a new method for measuring affect that improves interpersonal comparability of reported affect by anchoring the respondents' self-placements. The study investigates the changes in the relationship between white affect toward African Americans and racial policy opinions of presidential election years between 1964 and 2008. Furthermore, the study tests a new method for measuring affect by having respondents rate where they believe groups representing points on an ordinal scale would belong on the scale. The method allows for an adjustment of the respondents' self-placement in relation to where the respondent places the group. The findings contained here show that affect can be an important predictor of white racial policy opinion and the strength of affect can vary over time. In addition, the measurement of affect can be improved by utilizing anchoring objects in a survey to clarify the ordering of the scale for the respondents, as well as allowing for a reallocation of scores.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Gottemoller, Paul Gerard"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Doctor of Philosophy","degree_level":"Open Access Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Political Science","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Grant, Tobin"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2011,"date_issued":"2011-08-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2011-08-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T04:33:47Z","subjects":["Affect","Feeling Thermometer","Race"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/dissertations/379","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Grant, Tobin"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Gottemoller, Paul Gerard"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2011-08-01T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Political Science"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Open Access Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Doctor of Philosophy"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Affect","Feeling Thermometer","Race"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/dissertations/379"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact white affect toward African Americans has on whites' racial policy opinions. The study also identifies the difficulty of measuring affect in the traditional feeling thermometer. Moreover, the study introduces and tests a new method for measuring affect that improves interpersonal comparability of reported affect by anchoring the respondents' self-placements. The study investigates the changes in the relationship between white affect toward African Americans and racial policy opinions of presidential election years between 1964 and 2008. Furthermore, the study tests a new method for measuring affect by having respondents rate where they believe groups representing points on an ordinal scale would belong on the scale. The method allows for an adjustment of the respondents' self-placement in relation to where the respondent places the group. The findings contained here show that affect can be an important predictor of white racial policy opinion and the strength of affect can vary over time. In addition, the measurement of affect can be improved by utilizing anchoring objects in a survey to clarify the ordering of the scale for the respondents, as well as allowing for a reallocation of scores.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["White Americans' Affect Toward African Americans: Predictive Power on Political Behavior and Measurement Problems"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Grant, Tobin"],"dc:creator":["Gottemoller, Paul Gerard"],"dc:date.available":["2011-08-01T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact white affect toward African Americans has on whites' racial policy opinions. The study also identifies the difficulty of measuring affect in the traditional feeling thermometer. Moreover, the study introduces and tests a new method for measuring affect that improves interpersonal comparability of reported affect by anchoring the respondents' self-placements. The study investigates the changes in the relationship between white affect toward African Americans and racial policy opinions of presidential election years between 1964 and 2008. Furthermore, the study tests a new method for measuring affect by having respondents rate where they believe groups representing points on an ordinal scale would belong on the scale. The method allows for an adjustment of the respondents' self-placement in relation to where the respondent places the group. The findings contained here show that affect can be an important predictor of white racial policy opinion and the strength of affect can vary over time. In addition, the measurement of affect can be improved by utilizing anchoring objects in a survey to clarify the ordering of the scale for the respondents, as well as allowing for a reallocation of scores.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/dissertations/379"],"dc:subject":["Affect","Feeling Thermometer","Race"],"dc:title":["White Americans' Affect Toward African Americans: Predictive Power on Political Behavior and Measurement Problems"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Political Science"],"thesis:degree_level":["Open Access Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Doctor of Philosophy"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T04:33:47Z"}