Forms of ethnic prejudice: Assessing the dimensionality of a Spanish- language version of the Blatant and Subtle Prejudice Scale

Meertens’ subtle and blatant scales (1992, 1995). Its objective is to determine if the structure originally proposed by these authors is supported by data collected in the Chilean social environment and if this instrument, that theoretically detects modern prejudice manifestations, is useful to appropriately distinguish between old and new forms of ethnic prejudice. The premise underlying new forms of prejudice is that far from decreasing or disappearing, they have changed the way they express themselves from brutal and direct to others much better adapted to modern values of tolerance and non-discrimination than promoted by democratic systems. So, the traditional function of prejudice, far from losing importance, has been undergoing a progressive change from more traditional and open expressions to others less evident and subtler. This idea has gained support by showing that more evident and violent forms of expression, generally accompanied by feelings of anger, rage or hatred, have consistently decreased and have been replaced by feelings of discomfort, insecurity, disgust, and fear (Dovidio & Gaertner, 1986), along with the difficulty to express positive emotions toward exogroups (Pettigrew & Meertens, 1995). The expression of negative attitudes would simply restraint itself to situations without clear rules defining proper behavior. Blatant prejudice refers to more traditional and frequently studied forms of expression. As some authors state, it is hot, close, and direct prejudice (Pettigrew & Meertens, 1995). More precisely, the differential characteristics of blatant prejudice would refer to two basic components: Threat and rejection to the outgroup (including the belief in its genetic inferiority that would allow justifying the disadvantages of the out-group in society) and opposition to contact with the out-group (the anti-intimacy component focuses upon an emotional resistance against any intergroup, e.g. sexual contact or intermarriage). Forms of ethnic prejudice: Assessing the dimensionality of a Spanishlanguage version of the Blatant and Subtle Prejudice Scale