The introduction of a minority group of deaf students into the majority hearing culture (approximately 410 NTID students and 5000 full-time RIT students, as of 1972) offered an intense microcosm of the situation when any minority exists within a majority group. The deaf students in general are readily identifiable as a group since they of course do not hear well enough to participate easily in a conversation with an ordinary hearing students. The present investigation then seeks to establish if any stereotype does exist among the hearing about the personality of the deaf, and, if there is such a set of beliefs, whether there exists a basis in fact for these perceived characteristics
