Mexican-American and White Reactions to Stimulus Persons of Same and Different Race: Similarity and Attraction as a Function of Prejudice

Abstract

44 Mexican-American Ss and 44 white Ss in grade 9 rated a white and a Mexican-American stimulus person whose beliefs were unknown on a Similarity, Friendliness, and Social Distance Scale. High- and low-prejudiced Ss were identified by scores on the Social Distance Scale. The high-prejudiced white Ss perceived the white stimulus person as significantly more similar to themselves and reported that they would be significantly more friendly toward that person than toward the Mexican-American stimulus person. No significant difference was obtained for the high-prejudiced Mexican-American Ss' ratings of the Mexican-American and white stimulus persons for either similarity or friendliness or for ratings of low-prejudiced Ss, either white or Mexican-American. Ratings on similarity and friendliness were generally correlated for both Mexican-American and white Ss when level of prejudice was ignored. When level of prejudice was considered, ratings were significantly correlated for high-prejudiced Ss but not for low-prejudiced Ss.