The White Racial Affect Scale (WRAS): A Measure of White Guilt, Shame, and Negation

The construct White guilt is typically motivated by the recognition of unearned and unfair racial privileges, the acknowledgement of personal racist attitudes or behavior, and/or the sense of responsibility for others’ racist attitudes or behavior. Empirical and conceptual work suggests mixed consequences of White guilt: it may correspond with antiracist attitudes and behavior, but it may also motivate defensiveness and disengagement. We addressed weaknesses in existing psychometric tools used to measure White guilt by synthesizing approaches from the literature on White racial emotions and self-conscious affect, and by attempting to distinguish between White guilt and shame. The results of Study 1 yielded a three-factor structure of White Guilt, Negation, and White Shame, and provided initial support for construct validity. In Study 2, a confirmatory factor analysis provided mixed support for a three-factor structure. In Study 3, our results suggest test-retest reliability over two weeks.