While playing a game of strategy, nineteen groups of two black and two white seventh and eighth grade boys, otherwise similar, were systematically observed by black and white observers both, using a schedule derived from status characteristic theory. (JM)

In this study, the status ordering of a four-man group working on a task requiring discussion and decision was predicted on the basis of status characteristic theory. Two of the group members were white; two were black. They were matched as to age, height, and also on a combined index of socioeconomic status and attitude toward school. The…