Attitudes toward the Negro Scales
Measures White people's attitudes towards African Americans across multiple domains including personality, education, employment, civil rights, social relations, and housing.
Scale Development & Technical Details
Scale Overview
The Attitudes toward the Negro Scales was developed by Lessing A. Kahn (1951). It is designed to measure Attitudes toward African Americans. The scale is intended for use with White adults.
Scale Structure
This instrument consists of 33 items organized into 2 factors/subscales: Attitudes toward African Americans, Filler / General Social Attitudes.
| Factor / Subscale | Items | N |
|---|---|---|
| Attitudes toward African Americans | 2,3,5,7,9,10,12,13,15,16,18,19,21,22,23,24,26,27,28,30,31,32 | 22 |
| Filler / General Social Attitudes | 1,4,6,8,11,14,17,20,25,29,33 | 11 |
Response Format
Respondents rate each item using a 5-point Likert scale (1 = Strongly Disagree to 5 = Strongly Agree).
The scale includes 1 reverse-scored items to reduce acquiescence bias.
Scoring
Items are scored by subscale, with each subscale sum representing a distinct dimension.
Total scores range from 22 to 110. Interpretation guidelines:
- Highly Unfavorable / Prejudiced: 22 – 50
- Neutral / Mixed: 51 – 80
- Highly Favorable / Tolerant: 81 – 110
Psychometric Properties
Internal Consistency: The scale has demonstrated good to excellent internal consistency with reported Cronbach’s alpha values of High reliability.
Administration
The scale is self-administered and typically takes approximately 15 minutes to complete. It can be administered individually or in group settings. No special training is required for administration.