Stereotyping Neighborhoods, Not Individuals? Testing the Race-Based Neighborhood Stereotyping Hypothesis

Katherine Pearson, Pennsylvania State University

The race-based neighborhood stereotyping hypothesis, proposed by Ingrid Gould Ellen, posits that whites’ residential preferences are driven primarily by concerns for neighborhood quality rather than racial prejudice. Although whites’ desire for neighborhood quality is race-neutral, their evaluations of neighborhoods are based on racial stereotypes of black and mixed neighborhoods, not on stereotypes of black individuals themselves. Using data from the 2004 Detroit Area Study, this paper tests the race-based neighborhood stereotyping hypothesis as an explanation for whites’ residential preferences. In support of the theory, results show that neighborhood stereotypes mediate the effect of neighborhood racial composition on whites’ ratings of neighborhood desirability. The extent to which these stereotypes of neighborhoods are distinct from stereotypes of individuals, however, is questioned. Results indicate that, rather than representing a shift away from negative stereotypes towards blacks themselves, neighborhood stereotypes may simply be another method of expressing racial prejudice.