Attitudes on residential integration: Perceived status differences, mere in-group preference, or racial prejudice?

Residential segregation, especially of blacks from whites, remains the common pattern in urban America. This research examines the part that popular attitudes on residential integration may play in the process of residential integration/segregation. Using data from a large multiethnic sample survey in Los Angeles, we examine three hypotheses about the nature of attitudes toward residential integration. The perceived economic status difference hypothesis holds that attitudes about racial residential integration rest upon assumptions about likely class background differences between ethnic groups. The mere in-group preference hypothesis suggests that ethnocentrism results in mutual across-group preferences for residential contact with in-group members. The prejudice hypothesis suggests that hostile attitudes toward an out-group shape views on residential integration. Little evidence in support of the perceived economic status difference and mere in-group preference hypotheses can be found. Theories of prejudice, in particular Blumer's theory of group position, provide much greater leverage on residential integration attitudes. We discuss the implications of the results for actual behavior and aggregate patterns of racial residential segregation.