STEREOTYPIC PERCEPTIONS: THE INFLUENCE OF RACE, GENDER, AND SOCIAL CLASS CHARACTERISTICS OF TARGETS AND OBSERVERS

The current study was undertaken to determine the relative influence of race, gender, and social class on stereotypical perceptions. These three variables were analyzed as target group characteristics, and as subject group characteristics. The target group characteristics were race (black or white), gender (male or female), and social class (middle or lower). The subject group characteristics were race (black or white), gender (male or female), and perceived social class (above own median or below own median). Eight hundred ninety-one black and white male and female college students received a modified Katz and Braly (1933) wordlist. The list was modified to include characteristics typically associated with gender, race, and social class stereotypes. Each subject stereotyped one target group. Subjects selected the five words they thought were most descriptive of the group and assigned a favorability score to each of those words. The mean favorability scores were calculated on a cell-by-cell basis, and were used to conduct a 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 ANOVA on the favorability of the stereotypes associated with each of the eight target groups by each of the eight subject groups. Significant main effects for social class and sex of the target group emerged. Significant three-way interactions for subject race by subject sex by target race, and for subject sex by subject perceived social class by target sex also emerged. The results indicated that middle-class target groups were stereotyped more favorably than lower-class groups, and women were stereotyped more favorably than men. Black male subjects stereotyped black target groups significantly more favorably than white male subjects did. Subjects from lower-middle- and working-class income groups stereotyped all target groups significantly more favorably than subjects from middle-income groups did. It was noted that men and women from higher income groups made significantly more critical appraisals of opposite-sex target groups than was true for men and women from lower income groups. This study failed to obtain a significant main effect for race. It was concluded that, for this student sample, social class and gender dominated stereotypical perceptions more than race.