Impacts of labeling and competence on peers' perceptions: mentally retarded versus nonretarded perceivers

In an attempt to determine whether educably mentally retarded children hold the same attitudes towards members of their group that nonretarded children hold, regular-class and special-education class students in junior high school indicated their trait perceptions of and willingness to interact with same-sex target children who were either competent or incompetent spellers and who were labeled as either regular-class or special-class students. Although both groups perceived competent peers more positively than incompetent peers, only nonretarded students perceived peers labeled as special-education students more negatively than they perceived unlabeled peers. Neither group expressed any unwillingness to interact socially with either an incompetent or a special-class student. Thus, within the context of this study, there was no evidence that special-education students internalize prevailing negative attitudes toward their group.