Examining interracial marriage attitudes as value expressive attitudes

This study examined the extent to which attitudes towards Black/White interracial marriage were predicted by certain egalitarian-based (equality, mature love, benevolence) and conservative/tradition-based values (obedience, conformity, social order, tradition). It was also predicted the strength of value–attitude link would directly affect the extent to which values (egalitarian or traditional) manifest themselves in proattitudinal messages, thereby indicating the degree to which individuals are functional when creating proattitudinal messages. The data suggest that the value factors of equality, benevolent success, and power/tradition predict positive attitudes toward Black/White interracial marriage. Additionally, the functional extension hypothesis was significant for the benevolent success model.