Race, status, quality of spoken English, and opinions about civil rights as determinants of interpersonal attitudes.

Abstract

94 Ss were shown slides of a young man, either Negro or white and well or poorly dressed, and simultaneously heard a taperecorded statement which was either in favor or opposed to integrated housing, spoken in either excellent or ungrammatical English. The stimuli formed a 2 X 2 X 2 X 2 factorial design. The evaluation of the stimulus person was measured by the evaluative factor of the semantic differential; the behavioral intentions of Ss toward the stimulus persons were measured by 3 factors of the behavioral differential. It was shown that liberal Ss differed from illiberal Ss in the relative weights they employed for the characteristics race, dress, English, and opinion. Furthermore, English and opinion were the determinants of the evaluation judgments, as well as the social acceptance judgments on the behavioral differential. Race and English were the important determinants of the judgments on the social distance factor. English, race, and dress, in that order, were important in the determination of the judgments on the friendship factor. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)