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To explore the way in which the interpretation of ambiguous social behavior can be influenced by racial stereotypes and cultural differences, 40 black and 40 white 6th-grade males were shown a variety of ambiguously aggressive behaviors performed by black and white stimulus figures. As predicted, both black and white preadolescents rated these behaviors as more mean and threatening when the perpetrator was black than when he was white. In contrast, ratings of personal characteristics were in general determined by individual behavior rather than by group stereotypes, although blacks, whether they were the perpetrator or the recipient of the behaviors, were rated as stronger than their white counterparts. Cultural differences between subject groups were apparent in the greater tendency of the white children to read threat into ambiguously aggressive behaviors involving no physical contact and to assume that the perpetrators of such behaviors were stronger than the recipients.

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The authors argue for the inclusion of students' subjective sense of belonging in an integrated model of student persistence (Cabrera et al., J Higher Educ 64:123-139, 1993). The effects of sense of belonging and a simple intervention designed to increase sense of belonging are tested in the context of this model. The intervention increased sense of belonging for white students, but not for African American students. However, sense of belonging had direct effects on institutional commitment and indirect effects on intentions to persist and actual persistence behavior for both white and African American students.Keywords Sense of belonging Á Persistence Á Intentions Á Intervention Extensive efforts to identify factors that increase the persistence of students at colleges and universities have yielded sophisticated theories and complex models of student persistence. The current study investigates the importance of one factor that, although not traditionally emphasized in prevailing models of the college student experience, has recently received increased attention in research on student persistence: students' sense of belonging to their college or university. This study examines whether sense of belonging deserves a place in