Collaborative Research: The Dynamics of Cross-Gender Interracial Interactions

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As the United States becomes more diverse, the opportunities for interracial interactions — contact between people from different racial and ethnic groups — has subsequently increased. Positive interracial contact is associated with many societal benefits including reductions in prejudice and discrimination. Extensive work demonstrates, however, that interracial, compared to same-race, interactions are stressful, in part, because they increase the likelihood of experiencing social identity threat — being devalued based on one’s social group membership. Recent research suggests that people’s experiences during interracial interactions are further shaped by the gender of one’s interaction partner. To have a more complete understanding of interracial interactions and to develop interventions that foster positive interracial interactions, it is important to understand how gender and racial/ethnic background together shape people’s experiences in these interactions. This project forwards and evaluates a novel, theoretically based model of the effects of cross-gender interracial interactions on people’s experiences in these interactions. To move us closer to a potential intervention, we also examine whether the specific types of goals that people bring into an interracial interaction influences participants’ interaction experiences. This project uses an experimental approach to examine the effects of cross-gender interracial interactions on people’s affect, cognition, and behavior. In particular, we will test whether participants’ gender and race/ethnicity in addition to an interaction partner’s gender and race/ethnicity together shape people’s experiences in these interactions. The research also investigates whether an interaction partner's goals for the interaction (learning or performance goals) influences people’s interaction experiences. It is hypothesized that people will have report more negative experiences in cross-gender relative to gender-matched interracial interactions, however, people’s negative interaction experiences will be attenuated when their partner adopts a learning goal prior to the interaction. This research is poised to offer novel insights about how to promote comfortable and rewarding experiences in all interracial interactions.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.