Students' willingness to befriend a mentally retarded student was investigated using written vignettes about students said to be enrolling in the subjects' school. The study population included 60 fourth grade students from 5 social studies classes in a small southern community. Students were randomly assigned to experimental or control conditions. Groups of 8 to 12 students were taken to a separate classroom and asked to read written descriptions of 2 boys and 2 girls who were said to be enrolling in the school. In the control condition, all of the stories described the incoming students as being nonlabeled, normal peers. In the experimental condition, the descriptions of two of the new classmates were modified to include the addition of the mentally retarded label. Subjects were asked to make a behavioral commitment to befriend one of the incoming students under the assumption that the child would be joining their class. Chi square analysis indicated that the addition of the mentally retarded label to a description of a child significantly reduced the frequency of that child being chosen by subjects as a potential friend. The data suggested that a mentally retarded label may be a significant inhibitor to regular education students' willingness to accept labeled peers. (Author/AC)