Measurement of Racial Stereotype Subtyping

Abstract

This study examined characteristics associated with the global racial category "Blacks" and with several subtypes of the racial category: "streetwise, `"ghetto," "welfare," "athlete, "and "businessman. " Subjects were provided with one label and were asked to generate chtaracteristics commonly associated with it. Subjects' responses were submitted to discriminant function analysis, which provides information concerning the relation of characteristics listed by subjects to dimensions that explain the variance in subjects' responses and provides measures of the degree of overlap among the subtypes. The analysis revealed three dimensions: a negative/positive dimension, an athletic dimension, and a unique characteristic dimension. There were many classification errors for the "streetwise," "welfare," and "ghetto" subtypes but few classification errors for the "businessman " and "athlete " subtypes. The global stereotype, with its partial overlap with many of the subtypes, produced a moderate number of classification errors. Discriminant function analysis as a tool for studying subtyping is discussed.