INTRODUCTION

The United States is one of the most racially diverse places in the world. While it is
slowly progressing out of blatant racism, many harbor stereotypes about different races. Certain
demographics, such as those of different races or ages, have tendencies towards certain feelings
regarding other races. This paper will explore the impact of age and race on feelings toward
Hispanics, a group that has surged in immigration rates to the United States in recent years, and
that is a growing proportion of the United States population.

HYPOTHESIS
I will study the effect of different age groups on attitudes towards Hispanics. The
independent variable in my analysis is age group, and the dependent variable is the rating on the
feeling thermometer towards Hispanics. To account for other variables possibly affecting feeling
thermometer ratings, I introduce the control variable race to differentiate between white and
black respondents. The hypothesis and rival explanations are:
Hypothesis: In a comparison of individuals, younger age groups will be more likely to
report higher feeling thermometer ratings towards Hispanics than will older age groups.
Rival hypothesis: In a comparison of individuals, those who are black will be more
likely to report higher feeling thermometer ratings towards Hispanics than will those who
are white.
I anticipate that the independent variable, age group, will be negatively associated with
the dependent variable, the rating towards Hispanics on the feeling thermometer. As the age
group increases, the average rating on the feeling thermometer will decrease. Since the number
of Hispanic immigrants to the United States has increased significantly compared with the past

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decades, younger generations now live in a generally more diverse community of whites, blacks
Hispanics, and other minorities. Thus, younger generations are more tolerant of racial diversity
than older generations that lived in a more white-dominant society. In addition, I expect the
control variable, race, to be positively associated with the dependent variable. Blacks will give
Hispanics a higher rating on the feeling thermometer than will whites. Being a racial minority in
the United States as well, blacks sympathize with other racial minorities, including Hispanics,
more than whites. Overall, I expect younger age groups and/or those who are black to produce
higher ratings towards Hispanics on the feeling thermometer than older age groups and those
who are white.

DATA DESCRIPTION
I will use the American National Election Studies, 2008 dataset as my source. The survey
has been conducted since 1948, and draws from a sample of American voters across states,
asking questions ranging from policy preferences to campaign activities to ethnic perceptions.
The questions can be found at http://sda.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/hsda?harcsda+nes08new, and the
ANES website is http://www.electionstudies.org/. The descriptive statistics for the variables I
analyzed can be found in Appendix A-1.
The independent variable, age group, is an interval-level variable describing the range of
ages which each respondent falls into. The coding is 1 for ages 18-30, 2 for ages 31-40, 3 for
ages 41-50, 4 for ages 51-60, and 5 for ages 61 and older. The minimum observed value is 1, the
maximum observed value is 5, and the mean is 3.02. The mean indicates that the age distribution
of respondents was fairly even, with the average age between 41 and 50. The standard deviation

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is 1.45. The dispersion of age groups is high and bimodal, with no skew because the cases are
spread out across the coded values, but with two modes on the extremes, codes 1 and 5.
The dependent variable, the rating of Hispanics on a feeling thermometer, is an intervallevel variable coded on a scale from 0 to 100. Respondents were asked, How would you rate
Hispanics?, with 0 being very cold or unfavorable feeling and 100 being very warm or
favorable feeling. The minimum observed value is 0, and the maximum is 100. The mean is
68.93, meaning a slightly more favorable feeling towards Hispanics, and the standard deviation
is 21.39. The high standard deviation indicates that the values are clustered further away from the
mean. The dispersion is slightly high with negative skewness, or skewing towards the maximum
value.
The control variable, race, is a nominal variable, coded 1 for white and 2 for black. The
minimum observed value is 1, and the maximum is 2. The mean is 1.29, meaning that most
respondents are white. The standard deviation is .453, and the dispersion is low, with most cases
falling in the lower value, 1. The variable is positively skewed, or is skewed towards the
minimum value.

EXPLORING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE INDEPENDENT VARIABLE AND

THE DEPENDENT VARIABLE
Out of 2050 respondents, there is a somewhat negative relationship between the
independent and dependent variable. As age group increases, the trend is that feeling
thermometer ratings of Hispanics decrease, despite some small variation between age groups (A2). As Appendix A-2 shows, those who fall under the age groups 18-30 and 31-40 have similar
mean ratings of approximately 70, which is higher than the mean ratings for those who are 61

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and older. However, the mean ratings for ages 41-50 and 51-60 do not follow this negative trend,
and the ratings from the latter age group are about 1.5 points higher than those from the former.
As the Independent Samples T-Test shows, there is a negative mean difference of -1.625
because groups coded 2 and above, or ages above 40, gave lower ratings than groups coded
below 2, or ages 40 and under (A-3). This is one indicator that the alternative hypothesis may
survive, because the direction of the hypothesis corresponds to the direction of the mean
difference. However, the confidence interval, reading from the equal variances not assumed
row because the Sig. value is less than .05, includes 0, since the lower confidence boundary is
-3.565 and the upper confidence boundary is .315. Thus, the mean difference is not significant at
the .05 level, because it occurs more than five times out of 100. Finally, the Sig. (2-tailed)
value is .168. Dividing by two, the P-value is .084. If the null hypothesis is correct, then the
probability of random sampling error producing a mean difference of -1.625 is .084, or 8.4%,
which is greater than .05, the statistical standard above which the test value is not significantly
different from the mean of the test variable. Thus, the null hypothesis cannot be rejected; there is
a significant probability that age group does not affect feeling thermometer ratings on Hispanics.

TESTING THE HYPOTHESIS

To test the hypothesis, the following model was run:
Feeling thermometer rating of Hispanics = 66.494 - .532*(age group) + 2.060*(race) + e
An ordinary least squares regression was used because the relationship between the
independent variables and the dependent variables is expected to be linear. The results of the
OLS regression are shown in Appendix A-4. The results of the model indicate that the
independent variable, age group, is not statistically significant with a P-value of .126. Thus, the

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null hypothesis cannot be rejected. The variables coefficient indicates that a one unit increase in
age group is associated with a .532 decrease in feeling thermometer rating. The negative
relationship between this variable and the dependent variable is illustrated in the predicted values
graph (A-6). The results also show that the control variable, race, is not statistically significant
with a P-value of .067. The variables coefficient indicates that a one unit increase in race is
associated with a 2.060 increase in feeling thermometer rating. As Appendix A-5 shows,
Pearsons r depicts a very weak negative relationship of r = -.054 between age group and feeling
thermometer rating: as the age group increases, the feeling thermometer rating of Hispanics
decreases. The correlation between race and feeling thermometer is a weak positive relationship
with an r of .045: as the race unit increases, the feeling thermometer rating increases. The
independent variable, respondent age group, and control, respondent race, are negatively related
with a correlation of -.041: older respondents tended to be white rather than black.
The adjusted R2 is .002 and indicates that respondent age group and race explain 0.2% of
the variance in the dependent variable, rating of Hispanics on feeling thermometer. As this value
is extremely low, the chosen independent variable and control account for very little, if any, of
the feeling thermometer ratings of respondents. Correspondingly, the regression coefficient for
age group has a t-ratio of -1.529, and the regression coefficient for race has a t-ratio of 1.833,
both of whose magnitudes are less than 2. If the absolute value of t-ratios is 2 or greater, the null
hypothesis can be rejected. Thus, the null hypothesis cannot be rejected for either the
independent or control variables.

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CONCLUSION
There is not a significant relationship between either age group or race and feeling
thermometer rating on Hispanics because the null hypothesis cannot be rejected. Further research
could explore whether a relationship exists between different age groups and feeling
thermometer ratings for blacks and whites. In addition, one can continue to control for race and
determine the strength of the relationship between race and feeling thermometer rating on their
own and a different race. A greater sample size will be more reliable and improve external
validity, and either emphasize or call the current results into question. It will add more evidence
as to whether or not the null hypothesis can be accepted or rejected. For further research, there
should also be a wider variety in race of respondents, as most surveyed were white, which
generated incomparable frequencies when controlling for respondent race.

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APPENDICES
A-1. DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS TABLE AND HISTOGRAMS
Table 1: Descriptive Statistics
N
Minimu
Maximu
Mea

Standard

Deviatio

Hispanic_ther

205

100

68.9

n
21.39

m
Age5

0
232

3
3.02

1.45

Race

3
202

1.29

.453

5
Source: American National Election Studies, 2008

A-2. MEANS
COMPARISON TABLE

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Case Processing Summary
Cases
Included
Excluded
N
Percent
N
Percent
2050
88.2%
273
11.8%

Feeling thermometer:

Total
N
2323

Percent
100.0%

HISPANICS * Age group of

respondent

Report
Feeling thermometer: HISPANICS
Age group of respondent
Mean
18-30
70.21
31-40
70.48
41-50
67.90
51-60
69.47
61-older
66.75
Total
68.93

N
433
386
393
394
444
2050

A-3. INDEPENDENT SAMPLES T-TEST

Group Statistics

Feeling thermometer:
HISPANICS

Age group of respondent

>= 2
<2

N
1617
433

Std. Error
Mean
.528

Mean
Std. Deviation
68.58
21.238
70.21

21.905

1.053

Independent Samples Test

Levene's Test
for Equality of
Variances

Feeling
thermometer:
HISPANICS

Equal
variances
assumed
Equal
variances
not
assumed

A-4. REGRESSION TABLE

F
Sig.
7.226 .007

t-test for Equality of Means

df
2048

Sig. (2tailed)
.160

-1.379 665.597

.168

t
-1.404

90% Confidence
Std.
Interval of the
Error
Difference
Mean
Differenc
Difference
e
Lower
Upper
-1.625
1.157 -3.528
.279

-1.625

1.178

-3.565

.315

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Variables Entered/Removedb
Variables
Variables
Entered
Removed
respondent
. Enter
race, Age group
of respondent
a. All requested variables entered.
b. Dependent Variable: Feeling thermometer: HISPANICS
Model
1

Model
1

R
.058a

R Square
.003

Method

Model Summary
Adjusted R
Square
.002

Std. Error of the Estimate

21.302

a. Predictors: (Constant), respondent race, Age group of respondent

Coefficientsa
Standardized
Model
1

Unstandardized Coefficients
B
Std. Error
66.494
1.897

(Constant)

Age group of respondent

-.532
respondent race
2.060
a. Dependent Variable: Feeling thermometer: HISPANICS

Coefficients
Beta

.348
1.124

-.036
.043

t
35.047

Sig.
.000

-1.529
1.833

.126
.067

A-5. CORRELATIONS TABLE

Correlations
Age group of

respondent race

respondent
Age group of respondent

Feeling
thermometer:
HISPANICS
-.054*
.014

Pearson Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed)

-.041
.066

respondent race

N
Pearson Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed)

2323
-.041
.066

2025
1

2050
.045
.058

Feeling thermometer:

N
Pearson Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed)

2025
-.054*
.014

2025
.045
.058

1791
1

2050

1791

2050

HISPANICS

*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

A-6. PREDICTED VALUES SCATTERPLOT

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