Junior high school boys ranked each other on perceived academic ability (PAA) and social power with great consistency. Holding social power constant, four-man groups were formed with either two high and two medium PAA boys or two medium and two low PAA boys, and each group played a non-academic, co-operative simulation game. In each condition, the…

This experiment attempted to alter the effects of race as a diffuse status characteristic. Black subjects were given instructions meant to induce "high competence" on a task performed with white subjects. All subjects were seventh and eighth graders who did not know each other prior to the experiment. Each group comprised two white and…

The experiments here reported represent attempts to produce "equal status interaction" in four-man groups of junior high school boys, two of whom are white and two black. The theory is that equality is not a consequence of interracial task performance. Rather, it is likely that generally held beliefs about the differential competence of…

In the summer of 1972, a field experiment on intergroup behavior was conducted in Oakland, California. For the purpose of this experiment, a tuition-free 6-week summer school for black and white students of junior high school age was created. The design of the experiment compared the effectiveness of two treatments in producing "equal…

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…

Group participation by Israeli youth is examined in light of the Theory of Status Characteristics and Expectation States. This theory maintains that social and/or group status influences expectations of competence and triggers self-fulfilling prophecies of performance. An experiment designed to prevent unwanted dominance of high status…