The limited promise of interracial friendship: political partisanship moderates the association between having Black friends and anti-Black implicit bias

Figures & data

Figure 1. Histogram of Anti-Black Implicit Bias with Normal Curve Overlay (N = 1,868).

Note on IAT D scores: These scores are bounded within the range from −2 to 2. The break points for “slight” (+/−0.15), “moderate” (+/−0.35), and “strong” (+/−0.65) implicit bias are standard. I interpret D scores between −0.15 and 0.15 as negligible.

Table 1. Descriptive Statistics (N = 1,868).

	Mean (Std Dev)	Range
Dependent Variable Anti-Black Implicit Bias Independent Predictors One or More Black Friends One or More Friends * Democrat One or More Black Friends * Independent Controls Age Woman	0.55 (0.42) 0.09 0.04 0.01 55.34 (15.90) 0.50	−1.31–1.65 0–1 0–1 0–1 18–95 0–1
Some College	0.30	0–1
Four Year College Graduate School Democrat Independent Lives in South	0.25 0.15 0.47 0.14 0.32	0–1 0–1 0–1 0–1 0–1
Responses to Original Seven-Point Political Party Affiliation Question
Strong Democrat	0.27	0–1
Not very strong Democrat	0.09	0–1
Lean Democrat	0.11	0–1
Independent	0.14	0–1
Lean Republican	0.10	0–1
Not very strong Republican	0.10	0–1
Strong Republican	0.19	0–1

Table 2. Anti-Black implicit bias by friendships with African Americans (N = 1,868).

	Mean (Standard Deviation)
	Total Sample		Has No Black Friends		Has One or More Black Friends
Anti-Black Implicit Bias	0.55	(0.42)	0.56	(0.42)	0.49*	(0.41)

Note: Means comparisons are based on two-tailed test of difference of means. Significant differences are denoted as follows: *less than Has No Black Friends at p ≤ .05

Table 3. Friendships with African Americans and Anti-Black Implicit Bias by Political Party Affiliation (N = 1,868).

	N Per cent
	Total Sample		Democrats		Republicans		Independents
0 Black Friends	1,699	90.95	796	90.56	665	91.85	238	89.81
1 Black Friend	139	7.44	71	8.08	47	6.49	21	7.92
2 Black Friends	26	1.39	9	1.02	12	1.66	5	1.89
3 Black Friends	1	0.05	1	0.11	0	0.00	0	0.00
4 Black Friends	3	0.16	2	0.23	0	0.00	1	0.38
	Mean (Standard Deviation)
	Total Sample		Democrats		Republicans		Independents
Anti-Black Implicit Bias	0.55 (0.42)		0.50*** (0.43)		0.63 (0.39)		0.52*** (0.42)

Note: Means comparisons are based on two-tailed test of difference of means. Significant differences are denoted as follows: ***less than Republicans at p ≤ .001

Table 4. OLS regression models predicting anti-Black implicit bias using friendships with African Americans and political party affiliation (N = 1,868).

	Model 1 (Std. Error)	Model 2 (Std. Error)	Model 3 (Std. Error)
One or More Black Friends	−0.07* (0.04)	0.02 (0.04)	0.02 (0.04)
One or More Black Friends * Democrat		−0.19** (0.07)	−0.19** (0.07)
One or More Black Friends * Independent		−0.07 (0.09)	−0.07 (0.09)
Democrat		−0.11*** (0.02)	−0.08*** (0.02)
Independent		−0.09** (0.03)	−0.08* (0.03)
Age			0.00 (0.00)
Age squared			0.00 (0.00)
Woman			−0.04 (0.02)
Some College			−0.08** (0.03)
Four-year College			−0.10*** (0.03)
Graduate School			−0.12** (0.03)
Lives in South			0.01 (0.02)
Constant	0.57*** (0.01)	0.62*** (0.02)	0.69*** (0.03)
Prob > F	0.05	0.00	0.00
R-Squared	0.00	0.03	0.05
Root MSE	0.4093	0.4044	0.4004

Note: Robust standard errors in parentheses. Significant differences are reported as follows:

***p ≤ 0.001

**p ≤ 0.01

*p ≤ 0.05

Figure 2. Marginal Effect of Friendships with African Americans on Anti-Black Implicit Bias (N = 1,868).

Note: This figure displays 95 per cent confidence intervals.