Asian Americans as a Model Minority: Self-Perceptions and Perceptions by other Racial Groups

Although an abundance of anecdotal and journalistic articles about Asian Americans as a model minority has appeared in the past two decades, a review of the literature revealed surprisingly few empirical studies on this subject. Specifically, no research has been done on whether Asian Americans perceive themselves as a model minority and how they are perceived by other racial groups. In this paper, the results of a sample survey of a large public land-grant university on Asian Americans' self-perceptions and other racial groups' perceptions of Asian Americans in terms of their preparedness for college, motivation, and expectations of future career success are reported. Using whites as a comparison group, it was found that Asian Americans perceived themselves as more prepared, motivated and more likely to have greater career success than whites. Also, the perceptions that Asian Americans were superior to whites in those three areas were shared by whites, African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans. In contrast, the other three minority groups each viewed itself as inferior to whites in each of the three areas measured, and were so viewed by the other racial groups as well. The implications of these findings are explored.