In Case You Missed It…
Whatever else it is, wokeness is psychologically weird. A striking example comes from surveys of racial attitudes in the United States. Every major racial group feels warmer toward its own group than others - except one: White liberals. They do the opposite.
This was originally documented by Zach Goldberg in a 2019 article for Tablet, which included this viral graph:
Recently, the phenomenon was revisited in a fascinating post by fellow Substacker Cremieux. The post runs through a series of questions about the finding, with the answers coming in the form of graphs. My kind of post.
First, was the original finding just a one-off? No. The basic pattern appears in every recent wave of the survey.
Second, is this a liberal thing, rather than a White liberal thing? That is, do liberals of every racial stripe favor other races over their own? No. Black, Hispanic, and Asian liberals all maintain a preference for their own race. It’s only White liberals who exhibit a racial outgroup preference.
Third, have White liberals always preferred other races? No. Until recently, they too preferred their own race. This flipped, however, during the Great Awokening of the 2010s. The reversal was evident by 2016 and intensified in the wake of George Floyd’s death.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg! The post also explores whether the pattern varies with the strength of people’s liberalism; whether it reflects White liberals liking White people less, liking other races more, or both; whether it appears in other US datasets; whether it extends beyond the US; and whether it varies by sex, education, and income. You can read the full piece here.
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Coming Soon to The Nature-Nurture-Nietzsche Newsletter…
Is Academia Biased Against White Men?
Sex Differences in Cognitive Abilities
The Nature-Nurture-Nietzsche Linkfest for September 2026
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Thanks!
Steve
Really fascinating that it keeps replicating. Tks Steve!!
A deeper understanding of the phenomena is called for.
Am I allowed to make a Jungian bet? Say, $200 to the winner for each one below.
Here is what I predict
1) With Neuroticism excluded MBTI will predict white woke attitudes better than the remaining Big 4. (i.e. Explain more variance)
2) xNFx will be strongly overrepresented in white woke populations and xNFJ especially in its leadership and dogmatism. (With greater predictive power than the corresponding Big 4 high O, high A, high C excluding N)
P..S. The MBTI is a convention invented by Myers-Briggs that I am using as shorthand, All 8 letters represent Jungian concepts close to but not the same as 4 of the Big 5.
P.P.S. Dont take the bet, I will win!! :-)