Interpersonal Contact and Racial Prejudice: a Comparative Study of American and Chinese Students

Abstract

The extent of the causal relation between interpersonal contact and racial prejudice is examined with emphasis on how this relation is intervened by the effects of family socioeconomic status. A cross-cultural, comparative study of American and Chinese students is attempted using a stereotype questionnaire adapted, with some modifications, from Katz and Braly's adjective list. The data indicate that (a) family socioeconomic status is significantly related to cross-national contact among both the Americans and Chinese, (b) increased contact does not linearly reduce prejudice for both the Americans and Chinese and (c) family socioeconomic status is, relatively speaking, more important than interpersonal contact in its relation to prejudice and significantly so in the American sample.