Stereotypes and Attitudes Toward Nationality Groups in the United States

The history of racial/ethnic relations in the U.S. is a history of immigrant groups from nations around the world. Despite the prominence of immigrant groups in U.S. intergroup relations, there is a lack of systematic research on the stereotypes of specific nationality groups. To understand how nationality groups are perceived in the U.S., U.S. residents were randomly assigned to report on stereotypes and attitudes of a subset of 28 nationality groups and 6 racial/ethnic groups (N = 7,050). Nationality groups differed widely on the 15 stereotypes and attitudes we measured, which included perceptions of warmth, status, Americanness, and political orientation. The stereotypes and attitudes associated with nationality groups also consistently differed from those associated with their respective racial and ethnic groups. Finally, participants’ personal views of groups were consistently more positive than how they think society views these groups. These results highlight the heterogeneity of how Americans stereotype others on the basis of nationality and demonstrate the importance of disaggregating nationality from race/ethnicity when assessing stereotypes and attitudes.