Reducing social distance between students with and without special educational needs is one of the core aims of inclusive education. This study investigates social distance by administering a computer task to 400 participants (grades 3 and 4) in Germany and Austria. Half of the sample attends an inclusive school, the other half is in regular schools without contact to children with special educational needs. Participants are introduced to two “new” virtual classmates, one with Down syndrome, and one control student with no obvious handicap. Participants receive additional information, at random, about school achievement (good/poor) and about having fun with the new classmates (fun/no fun). Social distance towards both “new” classmates is measured before and after the information is given. Participants in inclusive classes are hypothesized to show less social distance towards children with Down syndrome and more influenced by the additional information. Data are currently being collected and will be presented at the conference. Data from a pilot study with non-inclusive classes showed a strong main effect for the factor Down syndrome (F=270.047; p< .01; Eta2= .38) and a week main effect for additional information (F=156.470; p< .01; Eta2= .26).