Sociocultural Influence on Attitude Formation Toward Critical Race Theory

Abstract

This study explores the influence of political and parental beliefs, location, and social upbringing on perceptions of critical race theory (CRT) among undergraduate college students above 18 years old. This study had 179 participants who submitted an online survey completing the Highly Sensitive Person Scale, Perceptions of Parents Scales: The College-Student Scale, Experience with Diversity Survey, Social and Economic Conservatism Scale, and Resistance to Change-Beliefs Scale. Participants were also asked questions about their perceptions of CRT, including their feelings about CRT, their support of teaching CRT, how they believed their parents felt about CRT, how confident they were in their understanding of CRT, if they were taught CRT in school, and what age they would prefer for CRT to be taught. Participants’ feelings toward CRT were significantly correlated with parental feelings of CRT. There is a significant correlation between the Social and Economic Conservatism Scale and participants’ perceptions of CRT. There is a significant correlation between the Resistance to Change Beliefs Scale and participants’ feelings toward teaching CRT, with the belief that CRT should be taught at the college level