George Yancey

Contact Theory Extended: The Effects of Prior Racial Contact on Current Social Ties

Objective. We address methodological limitations in tests of contact theory. Just as importantly, we extend its theoretical focus to behaviors. Linking insights from social and cognitive psychology with contact theory, we hypothesize that prior racial contact will have significant effects on the racial diversity of contemporary social ties. Methods. Using the 1999–2000 Lilly Survey of Attitudes and Social Networks, we conduct univariate and multivariate analyses to test our hypotheses. Results. Those who had experienced prior interracial contact in schools and neighborhoods were more likely, as adults, to have more racially diverse general social groups and friendship circles. They were more likely to attend multiracial as opposed to a uniracial religious congregations, and to be interracially married. In general, these findings applied not only to all Americans, but to whites, African Americans, and Hispanics separately. They did not apply to Asians. Conclusions. Contact theory can and should be extended, rendering it more fruitful for studying race relations. Except when groups are an extremely small percentage of the population, even limited prior contact in multiracial settings appears to have important effects on contemporary social ties. These findings have important policy implications.

AN EXAMINATION OF THE EFFECTS OF RESIDENTIAL AND CHURCH INTEGRATION ON RACIAL ATTITUDES OF WHITES

The contact hypothesis suggests that interracial contact promotes harmonious racial relations. Previous tests of this hypothesis are dated and tend to deal with overt old-fashioned racism rather than subtle racism. The contact hypothesis is tested within residential settings and religious institutions. Residential integration does not appear to alter the racial attitudes of white respondents toward African-Americans. Yet after basic demographic controls, whites who attend interracial churches exhibit less social distance toward African-Americans and have a lower tendency to stereotype blacks. Interracial religious groups may lessen the development of racial myths and encourage more harmonious primary relationships between whites and blacks.

CROSSRACIAL DIFFERENCES IN THE RACIAL PREFERENCES OF POTENTIAL DATING PARTNERS : A Test of the Alienation of African Americans and Social Dominance Orientation

Studying interracial romance has been useful for understanding general race relations. Theories of African American alienation and social dominance orientation help explain why previous research has found African Americans to be the least desired racial dating partners. Alienation predicts that African Americans are less willing to interracially date than other racial groups since they are not allowed to participate in the majority culture. Social dominance orientation predicts that African Americans are more willing to interracially date than other racial groups because they occupy the lowest position in our racial hierarchy. This study utilizes an Internet dating website to explore the racial dating preferences of European Americans, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans. The theory of African American alienation is upheld, as African Americans are generally less willing to interracially date than other races and are especially less willing to date European Americans.

Biracial marriages in the United States: An analysis of variation in family member support

This paper focuses on family member support of the decision of respondents to marry biracially. Through the use of assimilation theory and marital assimilation as a subprocess, it was hypothesized that African American spouses in biracial marriages experienced more support and acceptance from family members than White and Mexican American spouses received from theirs. In addition, individuals in Black/White marriages were asserted to have experienced less support and acceptance from family members than those in Mexican American/White marriages. A nonprobability sample of 337 biracially married individuals was utilized to investigate the research hypotheses. Through correlation and regression analysis, the research hypotheses were generally supported. African American family members were perceived to be the most supportive and accepting of biracial marriages involving one of their own, and White family members were seen as the least supportive. Length of marriage was found to influence support variables, i...

Does Height Matter? An Examination of Height Preferences in Romantic Coupling

Amidst increasingly equality in belief and in practice between the sexes, we ask if height preferences still matter, and if so, why people say they matter. First, we collected data from Yahoo! dating personal advertisements. Second, we used answers to open-ended questions in an online survey. The Yahoo! data document that height is still important in decisions to date but that it is more important to females than to males. Results from the online survey indicate that women wanted tall men for a variety of reasons, but most of the explanations of our respondents were connected to societal expectations or gender stereotypes. Gender-based legitimation of height preferences seem to be more central than evolutionary-based legitimation, but future work may discover a more nuanced interpretation.

Integrated Sundays: An Exploratory Study into the Formation of Multiracial Churches

Abstract Americans are less likely to develop primary relationships with members of different races than with members of their own race. Thus, organizations in which Americans develop their primary friendships are highly likely to be racially segregated. In a society in which primary interracial relationships are uncommon, multiracial churches are anomalous organizations. The purpose of this paper is to explore how multiracial churches may form. We utilize factor analysis based upon a national sample of multiracial churches, found through The Congregational Project (TCP), to discover the pathways used to create racially integrated congregations. This analysis describes four possible pathways: leadership, evangelical, demographic, and network. Qualitative research provides a case study for each of these dimensions. Future theoretical work is necessary for understanding the development of these pathways. Social scientists need to conduct more empirical research to determine if the origination of multiracial churches is linked to enduring characteristics of those organizations.

A preliminary examination of differential sexual attitudes among individuals involved in interracial relationships: testing "Jungle Fever"

Abstract “Jungle Fever” is a stereotype that individuals who enter interracial relationships out of a desire to experience sex with someone of a different race. This research is an initial attempt to gather empirical evidence that address this stereotype. Analysis of the sexual attitudes of never married/cohabited individuals in the 1992 National Health and Social Life Survey find little support for this stereotype. Because this finding only examines attitudes, and not motivations, this research is very preliminary. Future extensions to this work are discussed.

An Examination of the Propensity of Women and Racial Minorities to Specialize in Sex/Gender and Racial/Ethnic Relation Studies

Since scientists may study topics that are of personal interest to them it seems reasonable that women and racial minorities respectively are more likely to study sexism and racism. One would expect a disproportionate number of women and ethnic minorities to, respectively, belong to the sex/gender and race/ethnic specializations. Information from a 1991 survey of American socilogists confirms this prediction.

An Analysis of Resistance to Racial Exogamy

Support for biracial unions is a significant barometer of American race relations (Aldridge, 1978; Gordon, 1964; Porterfield, 1978). It is also useful for assessing the social acceptance of racial minority groups (Lewis, Yancey, & Bletzer 1997; Yancey & Yancey, 1998). Historically, opposition to interracial unions, especially those consisting of Blacks and Whites, was an important source for legitimizing racial segregation (Myrdal, 1964; Spickard, 1989). In contemporary America, White supremacist groups use fear of interracial unions to justify their rejection of racial equality (Ferber, 1998), and interracial marriages, especially Black-White marriages, continue to be proportionately rare (Jaret, 1995, chap. 7). When researchers want to gauge the level of opposition to interracial marriage, they typically use the most obvious method: They ask people. They then correlate the individual responses with other individual-level variables to see what individual-level factors are associated with individuals’ opposition to such unions. Based on this research, the following variables are correlated with expressing increased opposition to interracial marriage: older age, lower education and income, being Anglo, and political and religious conser-

Atheist Awakening: Secular Activism and Community in America

class family’’ (which, as he notes, undermined the very notion of social-class identity for families as opposed to individuals). Cherlin concludes that the 1950s ‘‘was a good era for children,’’ who ‘‘benefited from this familistic culture’’ (pp. 115–116). But the evidence we have for this is based on the fortunes of a generation which, although born to those families, turned against their norms as adults, riding a wave of prosperity into the women’s movement and abandoning universal early marriage, shotgun weddings, and enforced domesticity. It is ironic that so many people (Cherlin is certainly not alone here) attribute the success of the Baby Boom children to a style of upbringing that they themselves largely rejected at the first opportunity. Cherlin ably represents the growing chorus of social scientists concerned that poor and working-class parents today are ‘‘creating complex and unstable family lives that are not good for children’’ (p. 5). To his credit, Cherlin’s prescriptions for improving family stability mostly focus on education and the labor market, but the stated goal is the promotion of family stability. Why? For all the research into effects of family instability on children, we know that this factor is not more decisive than its economic precursors; that is, it is more valuable to have one or more parents with adequate education and income (regardless of their marital status) than it is to have stably married parents, many of whom are timeand resource-poor in our current economic and policy environment. This point of contention is important because Cherlin’s case for aiming interventions at family stability—which have, as he acknowledges, no record of success— assumes that the parameters of our stingy and ineffective welfare system are constant. Cherlin makes a strong case for economic policy to promote employment and wage growth, expanded access to education at all levels, and institutional reforms such as financial regulation and a higher minimum wage. Absent from this discussion, however, is any consideration of our welfare system, including any treatment of family leave policy, child tax credits, guaranteed basic income, or access to health care—all part of the current (albeit lopsided) policy debate. There are many proven policy levers to mitigate the effects of family change. Given this range of options, it is unclear why, even as Cherlin records the abject failure of marriage-promotion programs, he nevertheless believes ‘‘the message of pregnancy postponement may be worth trying,’’ in conjunction with efforts to improve the labor market at the low end (p. 183). In conclusion, Labor’s Love Lost is an important, valuable book, from which many sociologists and their students can learn, and over which many fruitful arguments should emerge.