Two experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of positive and negative reinforcements upon black college students. In the first experiment subjects received either positive or negative reinforcement from a black or a white evaluator. Results indicated that behavioral change (compliance) was greater in response to negative reinforcement from a black evaluator than in response to negative reinforcement from a white evaluator, while there were no divergent effects of evaluator's race upon compliance with positive reinforcement. The same pattern was obtained in subjects' self-evaluations. The second experiment offered a test of the hypothesis that the objectivity of black evaluators was perceived as greater than that of white evaluators, and that a manipulation aimed at equating the evaluators on objectivity would attenuate the effects of evaluator's race upon compliance and self-evaluation in response to negative reinforcement. These hypotheses were supported by the results. (Author/AM)