A STUDY TO INVESTIGATE THE ATTITUDES TOWARD SELF, COLOR, AND RACIAL ROLE OF SELECTED WHITE BOYS IN TWO DIFFERENT INSTITUTIONS IS PRESENTED. ONE GROUP OF CHILDREN CONSISTED OF A MINORITY OF WHITES IN AN INSTITUTIONAL SETTING, AND THE OTHER WAS A MAJORITY GROUP OF WHITE CHILDREN. THE RESEARCH EXPLORED WHETHER GROUP BEHAVIOR WAS BASED ON GROUP STATUS AND THE ROLE PLAYED, AND WHETHER WHITE BOYS IN A MINORITY GROUP BEHAVED DIFFERENTLY FROM WHITE BOYS WHO WERE IN A MAJORITY, OR WHETHER THE TOTAL CULTURAL BACKGROUND WAS SO STRONG THAT THEY CONTINUED TO ACT AS IF THEY WERE IN THE MAJORITY IN ALL CASES. THE CHILDREN WERE 12-YEAR-OLD BOYS OF VARIED BACKGROUNDS BROUGHT TOGETHER IN AN INSTITUTION FOR EMOTIONALLY DISTURBED BOYS. THE CHILDREN WERE GIVEN THE TRAGER-YARROW SOCIAL EPISODES TEST AND HAD INTERVIEWS IMMEDIATELY AFTERWARDS. PARENTS WERE INTERVIEWED AT HOME. COUNSELORS, COTTAGE PARENTS, AND CASEWORKERS WERE INTERVIEWED IN ORDER TO COMPLETE THE STUDY OF EACH CHILD. THE STUDY INDICATED THAT THE WHITE CHILDREN IN BOTH INSTITUTIONS WERE ALMOST UNANIMOUSLY PREJUDICED AGAINST NEGROES. ACTIONS COULD BE INFLUENCED EITHER BY THE BEHAVIOR OF THE MAJORITY OF CHILDREN WHERE THE AUTHORITY WAS PERMISSIVE, OR THE BEHAVIOR OF THE AUTHORITY WHERE THE AUTHORITY WAS NOT PERMISSIVE. IN BOTH INSTITUTIONS THE CHILDREN WHO WERE BOTH PREJUDICED AND DISCRIMINATING CAME FROM HOMES WHERE PREJUDICE ON THE PART OF AT LEAST ONE PARENT WAS USUALLY OVERT. THIS ARTICLE WAS PUBLISHED IN THE "JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL SOCIOLOGY," VOLUME 28, NUMBER 2, OCTOBER 1954.