Comparing a variable-centered and person-centered approach to the structure of prejudice

Whereas research on generalized prejudice is dominated by variable-centered approaches, which focus on communalities between different types of prejudice, we propose a complementary person-centered approach, looking for subgroups of people characterized by similar patterns of prejudice. To this end, we compare the results of a variable-centered (using confirmatory factor analysis [CFA]) and a person-centered (using latent class analysis [LCA]) approach to generalized prejudice. While CFA points to a multidimensional solution with a strong overlap between prejudice dimensions, LCA distinguishes five prejudice patterns that cannot be organized along a linear continuum of more versus less prejudiced dispositions. Explanatory models for the two solutions are estimated. Results show that the two methods are largely complementary in conceptualizing generalized prejudice.