Table 6.

Moderated Effects of Verbal Ability on Racial Policy Attitudes by Birth Cohort

Variable	Cohort × Ability Interaction		Verbal Ability Effects for Selected Cohorts (LORs)
	LOR	(SE)	1910	1930	1950	1970
Redistributive policy attitudes
Support government aid for blacks
Linear term specification	.003	(.002)†	–.060	.001	.062	.124*
Dummy variable specification
2nd ability tertile (versus 1st tertile)	.003	(.004)	–.396*	–.326**	–.256**	–.187
3rd ability tertile (versus 1st tertile)	.007	(.004)†	–.055	.086	.228*	.370**
Support school busing programs
Linear term specification	.001	(.001)	–.215***	–.200***	–.185***	–.170***
Dummy variable specification
2nd ability tertile (versus 1st tertile)	.005	(.003)	–.681***	–.586***	–.491***	–.395***
3rd ability tertile (versus 1st tertile)	.003	(.003)	–.420***	–.369***	–.317***	–.265*
Support racial preferences in employment
Linear term specification	.002	(.002)	–.230*	–.190**	–.151**	–.111†
Dummy variable specification
2nd ability tertile (versus 1st tertile)	.002	(.006)	–.810**	–.770***	–.730***	–.691***
3rd ability tertile (versus 1st tertile)	.008	(.005)	–.548*	–.383*	–.218*	–.053
Opportunity-enhancing policy attitudes
Support open housing laws	.001	(.001)	.021	.031	.042	.052
Support tax incentives for business in black areas	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Support spending more on black schools	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA

Notes: Data come from white respondents to the 1972-2010 waves/ballots of the General Social Survey that included racial attitude items and the verbal ability test. Estimates are from logistic regression models that control for age, period, cohort, geographic region, education, father's education, mother's education, and father's occupational status. Results are combined estimates from ten multiple imputation data sets.

^†p < .10

^*p < .05

^**p < .01

^***p < .001 (two-sided tests of no effect)