Perceived Similarity in Interracial Attitudes and Behaviors: The Effects of Belief and Dialect Style1

The present study investigated the role of two types of similarity (attitude similarity and dialect style) on interpersonal attitudes and behaviors in a face-to-face interaction. Sixty subjects interacted with an experimental confederate who was either black or white, spoke either standard white English or a black dialect, and whom the subject perceived as agreeing or disagreeing on an attitude questionnaire. Subjects' nonverbal behavior during the interaction was coded using Mehrabian's scheme of immediacy cues, and attitudes toward the confederate were measured via questionnaire following the interaction. Subjects showed more favorable attitudes toward the white than black confederate and had more positive attitudes toward the black confederate when she spoke white English. Contrary to previous findings, no significant main effect was found for belief similarity. While no significant mean differences were obtained between conditions for the nonverbal measures, correlations between these measures and a measure of likinglfriendship indicated that this relationship differed depending on the race of the confederate and the dialect used. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for the role of perceived similarity in interracial interaction.