An Empirical Analysis of 'Acting White'

Roland Fryer () and Paul Torelli

No 11334, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: 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.

JEL-codes: I2 J0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ure
Note: LS
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