Advantaged identity management strategies differentiate five subgroups of white Americans.

Abstract

The United States is experiencing significant social change, compelling white Americans to grapple more directly with their white identity. This paper examines how white Americans manage their identity amidst societal shifts using a recently developed measure of advantaged identity management, representative data (N = 2648), and latent profile analysis. The findings reveal five subgroups of white Americans, each managing their identity differently. Four profiles correspond to the main advantaged identity management strategies (defend (n = 251), deny (n = 528), distance (n = 694), dismantle (n = 612)), with a fifth using strategies flexibly (n = 563). We examined how valuing hierarchy, meritocracy, and egalitarianism predicted membership in these subgroups, and most of our predictions about how these values would predict membership were supported. These profiles show contrasting attitudes toward social change, with defender-deniers opposing, denier-distancers moderately opposing, distancers remaining neutral, and dismantlers supporting change. These findings provide empirical evidence for a recently theorized model of white identity management and suggest that how white Americans manage their identity has important implications for social change.