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Problem: Social science research notes that racial context is related to attitudes toward social issues;
however, surprisingly little research has examined how the impact of racial context on attitudes is
activated.
Goal of the article: The aim of this article is to examine racial context "effects" for policy preferences,
but to do so within a broader perspective. This article extends the literature on racial attitudes by
considering a conditional relationship between racial and ethnic context and socioeconomic context
and expanding racial context to include multiple racial and ethnic groups.
Conclusion: The findings indicate that racial and ethnic contextual effects do emerge; however, these
effects are conditional on the socioeconomic context in which an individual resides. Specifically, high
socioeconomic contexts and highly diverse contexts are related to higher levels of support for racial
social issues; however, contexts characterized by low socioeconomic context and high racial and
ethnic diversity are associated with lower levels of support for such issues.