Negotiating Interracial Interactions: Costs, Consequences, and Possibilities
Abstract
The United States is becoming increasingly diverse, yet interracial contact continues to be awkward, if not stressful, for many. Indeed, recent research suggests that individuals often exit interracial interactions feeling drained both cognitively and emotionally. This article reviews research examining how interracial encounters give rise to these outcomes, zeroing in on the mediating role of self-regulation and the moderating influence of prejudice concerns. Given that interracial contact may be the most promising avenue to prejudice reduction, it is important to examine factors that undermine positive interracial contact experiences, as well as those that facilitate them.
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Recommended Reading
Engle R.W. (2002). Working memory capacity as executive attention. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 11, 19–23. A highly accessible review of research suggesting that executive attention is a domain-free, general resource that allows individuals to keep information in or out of mind.
Muraven M., Baumeister R.F. (2000). (See References). Articulates the “strength” model of self-control that predicts the depletion of executive resources as a function of previous self-control efforts.
Shelton J.N., Richeson J.A. (2006). Interracial interactions: A relational approach. In. Zanna M.P. (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 38, pp. 121–181). San Diego, CA: Academic Press. A comprehensive review of our research on interracial interactions with greater discussion of the relational approach that we have proposed and adopted.
Vorauer J.D. (2006). An information search model of evaluative concerns in intergroup interaction. Psychological Review, 113, 862–886. An insightful model of for whom, how, and under what conditions individuals are concerned about how they will be evaluated during intergroup interactions.
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Article first published: December 2007
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