Status Differentials, Status Stability, and Interethnic Social Competition in Anglo-Americans and Mexican Americans

A 2 x 2 x 2 between-subjects design was employed to examine the relationship among status differentials, status stability, and intergroup social competition. The three independent variables were the ethnic background of subjects (Anglo-American/Mexican American), manipulated status rank (high status/low status), and status stability (stable status/unstable status). The dependent variable was social competition defined as in-group bias/out-group discrimination as measured by Taffel's matrices. Fifty-two Mexican American and 42 Anglo-American subjects participated in this study. They were asked to rate a bogus ethnic in-group and out-group on the quality of their solutions to a problem-solving task. The results indicated that stable high-status Anglo-Americans exhibited social competition against the Mexican American out-group whereas stable low-status Anglo-Americans showed slight favoritism toward this out-group. Furthermore, unstable Anglo-Americans, both low and high statuses, displayed social competition against Mexican Americans. Finally, the results showed that Mexican Americans, regardless of their status rank or status stability, exhibited social competition against the Anglo-American outgroup. Thesefindings are believed to be a result of the real-world minority status of Mexican Americans.