Liking and disliking minority-group classmates: Explaining the mixed findings for the influence of ethnic classroom composition on interethnic attitudes

Abstract

Research on the influence of the number of ethnic minority group classmates on majority group students' interethnic attitudes produced conflicting results. With data from 728 early adolescents, we found that the effect of the ethnic class composition depends on two opposing student-level mechanisms. First, majority group students who liked a larger number of minority group classmates developed more positive attitudes toward minority groups. Second, students who disliked a larger number of outgroup classmates developed more negative outgroup attitudes. In our sample, these two effects neutralized each other because the sample consisted of about the same number of students that liked most of their outgroup classmates and students that disliked most outgroup classmates. Results were consistent in cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. These results support a new interpretation of the mixed findings in past research, suggesting that past studies may have differed in the number of students who liked and disliked outgroup classmates.