Anti-white prejudice - considered almost non-existent in the '50s - is now perceived among white Americans as a bigger problem than anti-black bias, according to a new study.

The report found that both races agreed anti-black prejudice declined steadily over the last 60 years, but white Americans felt that bias against them was on the upswing.

Asked to rank prejudice against blacks on a 1-10 scale in the 2000s, white respondents put the number at 3.6 - compared with 9.1 in the '50s.

But white respondents also put the number for anti-white bias at 4.7 - way up from the 1.8 of the '50s.

The numbers suggest "that whites also linked the decrease in anti-black sentiment over the last half century to an increase in anti-white bias over the same time period," the authors wrote.

Black participants in the study also saw a decrease in anti-black bias over the years: from 9.7 in the '50s to 6.1 in the '00s.

Blacks also saw an increase in anti-white bias, although in much, much smaller numbers: from 1.4 to 1.8.

The report appears in the May 2011 edition of the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science.

Supposedly whites would drive around honking their horns to signal that a lynching was about to take place. Earning the term Honky.