Citation

St. John C, Bates NA. Soc. Sci. Res. 1990; 19(1): 47-61.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1990, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/0049-089X(90)90014-A

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Data on residential segregation imply whites are averse to living in integrated neighborhoods even though survey data show prejudiced attitudes toward blacks are decreasing. This aversion could be due to whites associating crime and deterioration with black neighborhoods instead of being a reaction to racial composition or it could be due to the persistence of race as a master status in the United States with black neighborhoods perceived as having low status regardless of accompanying characteristics. The factorial survey method was used to create vignette neighborhoods in which racial composition, crime, deterioration, and other neighborhood characteristics are unrelated. A random sample of adults in a southwestern metropolitan area was asked to evaluate these vignettes. Controlling for neighborhood characteristics, racial composition was found to have a significant effect on neighborhood evaluaton, supporting the race as master status explanation.