TY  - JOUR
AU  - Fryer,Roland G., Jr.
AU  - Torelli,Paul
TI  - An Empirical Analysis of 'Acting White'
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 11334
PY  - 2005
Y2  - May 2005
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w11334
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w11334.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Roland G. Fryer, Jr
Department of Economics
Harvard University
Littauer Center 208
Cambridge, MA  02138
Tel: 617/495-9592
Fax: 617/495-8570
E-Mail: rfryer@fas.harvard.edu

Paul Torelli
E-Mail: torelli@nber.org
AB  - 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.
ER  -