Assessing the Accuracy of the Color-Blind Racial Attitudes Scale (CoBRAS)

In a new study, “Evaluating the Color-Blind Racial Attitudes Scale Using Item Response Theory,” Alex Ajayi, faculty, Jesus Delgado, graduate student, and Moin Syed, faculty, and assessed the accuracy of the Color-Blind Racial Attitudes Scale (CoBRAS). The CoBRAS is a widely used tool that measures color-blind racial ideology; this belief system suggests that race is a negligible factor in someone’s life and ultimately serves to minimize the significance of race and race-based systemic inequities. Ajayi, Delgado, Syed, and their collaborators conducted the study in response to uncertainties about the dimensionality and validity of the CoBRAS’s scores across race and gender.

The researchers found that despite its widespread use, the CoBRAS has room for improvement: individuals from various racial backgrounds interpreted and responded to CoBRAS’s items differently. Thus, it is important for mental health practitioners and other human services professionals who use the CoBRAS to consider a client’s racial background when interpreting the scores. Otherwise, they risk perpetuating, either knowingly or unknowingly, harmful color-blind attitudes in their work with clients. The researchers contended, therefore, that advanced psychometric methods may provide additional value to the CoBRAS by enhancing this precision.