Attitude toward the Negro of Northern and Southern College Students

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Abstract
If we confine ourselves to the groups studied we may summarize as follows: 1. There are significant and true differences in the attitude toward the Negro of the three groups, students from Northern homes studying in the North being most favorable, students from Northern homes studying in the South being not so favorable, and students from Southern homes studying in the South being least favorable. 2. There is a slight positive relation between intelligence and attitude in all three groups, this relationship seemingly being highest for the Northern students studying in the North. 3. There is a consistent sex difference in the three groups, the women being slightly more favorable than men. 4. In the Northern group and in the Southern group upper-classmen are equally favorable or slightly more favorable in attitude than are freshmen, but among the Northern students studying in the South the upperclassmen are definitely less favorable than are the freshmen who have just recently come South. 5. No relation between size of community and attitude was found in any geographical group. 6. But slight if any relationship was found between occupation of the father and attitude. Recognizing the limited nature of the study the writers hesitate to draw any general conclusions concerning the nature of differences in the attitude of college students toward the Negro. However, the study does suggest that Northern college students are on the average definitely more favorable toward the Negro than are Southern college students; but there are great individual differences within the groups and consequently overlapping between them. As to the causes of these differences our conclusions are only negative. They do not seem to be satisfactorily accounted for by intelligence, sex, degree of maturity, size of home community, or occupational level. Finally, when Northern students are transplanted into the Southern environment their attitude seems to change, gradually becoming more nearly that of the Southern students. Whether this change is the result of contact with the Negro or with the general Southern atmosphere cannot be said.

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