The effects of labels, "mentally retarded" and "institutionalized" on the evaluations and causal attributions of nonretarded persons, and on the social distance preferences of EMR persons, were assessed. In addition, each group was asked to predict the likelihood of a labeled (mentally retarded) or a nonlabeled target person achieving success at a cognitive task and at three social behaviors (getting a job, getting married and having children). Results indicated that college students maintain a patronizing attitude toward mentally retarded persons--giving them less credit for their successes and less blame for their failures than they give to nonretarded persons. They also tended to make situational attributions for the behavioral outcomes of retarded persons, whether they were successful or not. Results with the two samples of retarded persons indicated that they were aware of the stigma associated with the retarded and institutional labels, and that they had the same low expectations for future success from (other) labeled persons (peers) that college students had. However, they appeared to have somewhat more optimistic expectations for their own chances of success than for the chances of other retarded persons. (Author/BMW)