Consumer Racism Scale

What it measures

Consumer racism (CR) is defined as antipathy toward a domestic ethnic minority group's products or services as a symbolic way of discriminating against that group. Ouellet (2007) distinguishes CR from related constructs: unlike consumer ethnocentrism, CR is directed at a specific ethnic minority rather than all outgroups; unlike animosity, CR reduces both product judgments and willingness to buy rather than willingness to buy alone; and unlike both, CR is more socially undesirable and therefore harder to measure. The 9-item CRS was developed and validated across three country contexts -- the United States (Hispanics as the dominant minority), Canada (French Canadians), and France (North Africans) -- using a multistudy program involving item generation from qualitative interviews with identified high-racism individuals, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, and experimental validation. The scale uses generic placeholders for the target minority group, enabling adaptation across national and ethnic contexts.

Response format

5-point Likert scale; higher scores represent greater consumer racism (Items 1, 2, 4, 7, and 8 are reverse-scored)

Scale items

• We should support [Dominant Minority Group] in their struggle to build their own successful businesses in this country by consuming their goods and services. (R)
• It is easy to understand the frustration of [Dominant Minority Group] business owners in this country, who see us patronizing other stores instead of theirs. (R)
• [Dominant Minority Group] entrepreneurs in this country have it better than they ever had it before from consumers.
• [Recent arrivals in this country]/[Generations of economic domination and discrimination] have created conditions that make it difficult for [Dominant Minority Group] to create businesses and get us to purchase their products. (R)
• It's really a matter of some people not trying hard enough; if [Dominant Minority Group] would only try harder, their products and services could be just as good as ours, and I would then patronize their businesses as much as I patronize ours.
• Italians, Jews, and many other minorities overcame prejudice and established profitable businesses in this country. [Dominant Minority Group] should do the same.
• How much discrimination against [Dominant Minority Group]-owned businesses by consumers do you feel there is in this country, limiting their chances to grow and succeed? (R)
• Over the past few years, [Dominant Minority Group]-owned shops and companies have gotten less business than they deserve from customers. (R)
• Over the past few years, [Dominant Minority Group]-owned businesses have been patronized more than they deserve by consumers.

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

Scale is unidimensional. Cronbach's alpha ranged from .78 (France) to .81 (United States); threshold of alpha >= .80 is met in the U.S. sample. Validated via CFA across Boston (n = 138), Montreal (n = 144), and Grenoble (n = 125); average CFI = .97, average NFI = .93. Discriminant validity established against an adapted ethnic ethnocentrism version of the CETSCALE (alpha = .92) and economic animosity from Klein, Ettenson, and Morris (1998; alpha = .71) using Fornell and Larcker (1981) criteria and Anderson and Gerbing (1988) nested model comparisons. Experimental validation across 954 respondents showed high-CR consumers rated dominant minority products significantly lower on both product judgments (mean 3.33 vs. 3.86) and willingness to buy (3.11 vs. 3.75) than low-CR consumers (p < .001). CR effects are moderated by level of interaction required by the product (higher interaction amplifies CR effects), product-ethnicity image (favourable image attenuates CR effects), and importance of outcome (higher importance amplifies CR effects on willingness to buy but not product judgments). Minority-owned firm performance was significantly lower in high-CR localities than low-CR localities (2.81 vs. 4.08; F(1,38) = 10.37, p < .01). Items use bracketed placeholders [Dominant Minority Group] to be adapted to the specific majority-minority context. Item 4 presents alternative bracket options: [Recent arrivals in this country] for the U.S./France framing versus [Generations of economic domination and discrimination] for the Canadian context. Items 1, 2, 4, 7, and 8 are reverse-scored; Items 3, 5, 6, and 9 are scored directly.

Citation

Ouellet, J.-F. (2007). Consumer racism and its effects on domestic cross-ethnic product purchase: An empirical test in the United States, Canada, and France. Journal of Marketing, 71(1), 113-128. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkg.71.1.113

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