An empirical analysis of 'acting white'
By: Roland G. Fryer, Jr., Paul Torelli.
Contributors: Torelli, Paul.; National Bureau of Economic Research.
Series: NBER working paper series ;; working paper 11334; Working paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research : Online) ;; working paper no. 11334.
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research
Published: 2005
Place of publication: Cambridge, MA
Language: eng
Format: Electronic resource
Subjects: Academic achievement -- Social aspects -- United States; African American students -- Education; African American students -- Ethnic identity; Popularity
Description: "There is a debate among social scientists regarding the existence of a peer externality commonly referred to as 'acting white.' Using a newly available data set (the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health), which allows one to construct an objective measure of a student's popularity, we demonstrate that there are large racial differences in the relationship between popularity and academic achievement; our (albeit narrow) definition of 'acting white.' The effect is intensified among high achievers and in schools with more interracial contact, but non-existent among students in predominantly black schools or private schools.  The patterns in the data appear most consistent with a two-audience signaling model in which investments in education are thought to be indicative of an individual's opportunity costs of peer group loyalty.  Other models we consider, such as self-sabotage among black youth or the presence of an oppositional culture, all contradict the data in important ways"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
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Mode of access: World Wide Web.