RACIALLY EXCLUSIVE REAL-ESTATE ADVERTISING - PUBLIC-POLICY IMPLICATIONS FOR FAIR HOUSING PRACTICES

The authors' field experiment indicates that including African-America ns in real estate advertisements produces a positive effect for (1) Af rican-American readers in terms of liking the models pictured in the p hotographs and (2) African-American high ethnic identifiers in terms o f identifying with the models pictured in the photographs. However bas ed on responses to the dependent measures of behavioral purchase inten tions and attitude toward the advertising campaign, message, and produ ct, the results do not support the hypothesis that racially exclusive advertising sends a racially exclusive message. A follow-lip content a nalysis of real estate newspaper advertising suggests that cities with higher percentages of ethnic minorities are more responsive to includ ing more ethnic minorities in real estate advertisements. However the results do not show evidence of a chilling effect, that is, a reductio n in the use of real estate advertisements with models.