PUBLICATION
ABSTRACT
Survey research has documented the extent to which whites misperceive the size of the nonwhite population in the United States. However, the sociological reasons for this and the implications for race relations has yet to be adequately explored. This study uses individual interviews, focus groups, and opened-ended surveys to examine the explanations white respondents offer for inflating the size of U.S. minority populations. My findings suggest that the media, residential segregation, racial stereotypes, and perception of group threat each contribute to whites’ underestimation of the size of the white population and the inflation of group size among racial minorities. How misperceptions of racial group size may inform race relations research is examined.