Hypothesis 5 states that, because the Backdoor Vignette has no obvious relevance to social issues surrounding race, participants will not read this vignette through the lens of their racial beliefs. Consequently, preexisting levels of racial bias should not predict belief in essential racial differences in the Backdoor Vignette condition. For the same reason, acceptance of the Backdoor Vignette’s validity should be relatively high because it describes medical research that should be well accepted and that should raise no red flags for people either high or low on racial bias that the vignette disputes their existing racial attitudes and therefore should be deemed invalid.
