Negro Interviewers and White Patients

Ethnic identification and preference: A review.

“…White Americans' replies revealed more "prejudice" to white than to Chinese interviewers (Athey, Coleman, Reitman, & Tang, 1960). With a similar range of personal and political topics, Price and Searles (1961), Williams and Cantril (1945), and Womack and Wagner (1967) noted no significant racial examiner effects. However, when Williams (1964) reanalyzed findings from Price and Searles (1961) by determining the threat intent of each question, he found that, on highthreat questions, low-status respondents gave more subservient responses to white than to black examiners.…”

Racial "experimenter effects" in experimentation, testing, interviewing, and psychotherapy,.

“…The significant results in the Athey et al (1960) studies suggested that the respondents replied in a socially acceptable manner, that is, they were sensitive to the interviewers' race. Womack and Wagner (1967), in accounting for their nonsignificant results, suggested that the Negro psychiatrist represents a status contradiction because he is simultaneously Negro (low status) and psychiatrist (high status). The psychiatric patients, who were predominantly of the lower class, apparently resolved this dilemma by responding to the Negro psychiatrists as highstatus persons when they were initially contacted for psychiatric interviews.…”

“…Of the three studies with adult white respondents, two showed generally significant interviewer effects (Athey et al, 1960, Studies 1 & 2) while the third failed to find significant effects (Womack & Wagner, 1967). In the second study by Athey et al (1960), there was also one nonsignificant effect which occurred when college freshmen were interviewed by Negro interviewers about Negro homeownership in the respondents' neighborhood.…”

“…However, regardless of the effectiveness of the training or selection procedures, it is still somewhat difficult to evaluate data obtained in studies in which there were radical interviewer differences. For example, in one study race was represented by one oriental female interviewer and one white male interviewer who differed in age (Athey et al, 1960), while in another study the white race was represented by two white psychiatric residents and the Negro race represented by one Negro psychiatric resident and one Negro graduate oceanography student (Womack & Wagner, 1967). More careful matching of interviewers (and experimenters, too) would seem to be very much needed.…”

“…The need to consider the threat potential of the questions, as Womack and Wagner (1967) pointed out, was also considered by Williams (1964) who made an important methodological contribution. He determined the threat potential of the interview questions, used in the Price and Searles (1961) study, by considering how the respondents might perceive the consequences of their responses.…”