ABSTRACT
In 1934, Richard LaPiere accompanied a Chinese-American couple of his acquaintance on an extended trip in the southwestern United States (LaPiere, 1934). Along the way, the trio visited over 200 hotels and restaurants. At only one were they offered anything less than courteous service. This fact was of considerable importance to LaPiere, who had earlier contacted these establishments only to be repeatedly told that Chinese Americans would not be welcome as customers or guests. As every social psychologist knows, this lack of consistency between expressed attitudes and actual behavior became oft-cited evidence in the debate over whether and how attitudes guided behavior (e.g., Blumer, 1955; Wicker, 1969). Given the attitude objects involved, however, the study generated surprisingly little theoretical debate in the domain of intergroup relations. Few similar questions appear to have been raised about whether prejudice can or does guide discrimination.
