DETERMINANTS OF ANGLO-AUSTRALIAN STEREOTYPES OF THE VIETNAMESE IN AUSTRALIA

This study investigated whether Anglo-Australian subjects differentiat ed the Vietnamese from a broader Asian group on the basis of ethnocent rism, suburb of residency, gender, and orientation to ''group fictions '' about the Vietnamese. Eighty-four third-generation Anglo-Australian s from suburbs with either large numbers of Vietnamese residents, or w ith relatively few, completed a set of semantic differential scales fo r Asians, Anglo-Australians and Vietnamese, and a questionnaire of ''g roup fictions'' based on published statements and possible stereotypic concepts about the Vietnamese. Results indicated that, regardless of where subjects lived, they did differentiate the Vietnamese from the m ore general Asian group. Subjects from a suburb with high potential fo r daily contact regarded the Vietnamese most favourably. Females rated both the Vietnamese and Asians more highly than did males. In a secon d part of the study, a path analysis showed that subjects' orientation to group fictions about the threat posed by Vietnamese predicted to b oth status and solidarity, whereas group fictions about family cohesio n and the extent to which Vietnamese could be seen as deserving battle rs, did not. With the exception of gender to status, the predictions f rom ethnocentrism, residency, and gender were best mediated through th e threat variable.