outcomes that are further along the path toward policies than the beliefs we measured in the present study. Several studies, including ours, demonstrate that belief in racial differences and belief that racial differences are genetically based are correlated with, but not necessarily causal of, several measures of racism, some of which (e.g., acceptance of racial inequalities, modern racism) measure policy attitudes (Bastian and Haslam 2006; Jayaratne et al. 2006; Kluegel 1990; Williams and Eberhardt 2008). There is, to our knowledge, no demonstrated causal pathway between backdoor messages and policy outcomes. However, the theory and research cited here give ample reason to expect, and thus motivation to explore, such a connection. Even without a demonstration of such far-reaching policy influence, the causal effects of backdoor messages that have been shown—on belief in racial differences, genetic attributions for racial differences, denial of racism, modern racism, and support for genetic discrimination—are quite significant in their own right.
