study, thus, will examine effects of vicarious contact via television on stereotypes of African Americans among White and Japanese international college students. This case study tests the key hypothesis that the less contact a group has with African Americans, the more television will influence their perceptions of African Americans. Stereotypes Stereotypes are defined as "cognitive structures that contain the perceiver's knowledge, beliefs, and expectancies about some human group."lo Once categorized as a member of a certain group, an individual is expected to possess the same characteristics (stereotypes) of that group and is evaluated on the basis of category-based attributes.ll Therefore, stereotypes are a set of beliefs about group characteristics or attributes.12
Stereotypes are not necessarily negative, but they can be destructive or bad when used by the dominant group to underscore majority-minority differences or to make some other (e.g, ethnic minority) groups inferior.'3 According to Berg, the dominant group would selectively impose stereotypical characteristics on any minority members depending on the perceived threat from the minority group in question. Harmful characteristics (e.g., childlike) are given to a minority group when the perceived threat is absent, while dangerous attributes (e.g., deficit) will be given when the perceived threat is present. Once a mutual relationship is achieved between the two groups, one is more likely to perceive the other as hard working, strong, and friendly.l4 Recent nationwide opinion polls on ethnic images in the United States15 revealed that of all other ethnic groups (African Americans, Hispanics, and Asian Americans), Whites received the most positive (highest) scores in all traits measured (work ethic, wealth, dependency, violence, intelligence, and patriotism). African Americans obtained lower evaluations, ranking last in the three traits (violence, lazy, and dependence); and next to the last in the wealth and the intelligence trait. Another opinion poll by McAneny6 also reported that more than one-third (37 percent) of both African-American and White adults viewed Blacks as "more likely" than other ethnic groups to commit crimes. …