Race vs belief as determinants of attraction, in a group interaction context.

Three experiments which tested the' effects of race vs belief similarity as determinants of prejudiced responding in a live interaction situation,are reported. Two black and two white confederates engaged a white S in a discussion of an issue (ROTC in Experiments I and II and abortion in III). One white and one black confederate agreed with the S's position and the other pair disagreed. Ss then rated all four confederates on a variety of scales. Results showed strong belief effects in all three experiments but very few race effects. A few measures showed a "renegade effect" against dissimilar white confederates. It was concluded that simply increasing the power and realism of the experimental situation does not in any important way increase the number of racially prejudiced responses. Some conditions which may elicit strong and consistent race prejudice effects are discussed.