Ethnic prejudice in Australian and New Zealand students

Abstract

Australians and New Zealanders are often viewed as having differing attitudes toward ethnic minorities in their countries. New Zealanders have a reputation for non-discrimination towards Maoris (Booth & Hunn, 1962), an indigenous Polynesian group. Australians are seen as having attitudes consistent with the “white Australia policy”, which refers to the exclusion of coloured immigrants (Beswick & Hill, 1969). Aborigines, an indigenous dark-skinned minority group, are subject to restrictive laws in some states in Australia (Western, 1969). In the present study two student samples, from the University of Queensland (the Brisbane sample) and the Victoria University of Wellington (the Wellington sample), were compared on a standard measure of prejudice.