The Cost of Covering: Psychological & Physiological Implications of Managing a Stigmatized Identity

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。对群体间接触的研究通常集中在明显受到歧视的群体（如少数族裔）的成员，在经历了糟糕的待遇或被提醒自己的群体被贬低的地位后，如何保持高度的自尊。然而，很少有人关注社会价值被贬低的群体成员如何试图管理这些互动，以及这些努力可能带来的成本。本工作审查了少数种族成员在种族间交往中可能采取的一种策略，即预期受到他人的负面待遇，目的是先发制人。这种自我呈现策略被称为“掩饰”，是指个体在跨种族互动中转移、抑制或避免讨论与他们的群体成员关系密切的话题，目的是减少互动伙伴对他们的群体成员关系可能产生的任何负面反应。该项目将研究一所以白人为主的精英私立大学的少数种族（黑人和拉丁裔）学生的行为，在这种情况下，这些人在数量上被低估，在文化上被贬低。在一系列的实验室研究中，本研究将检验(1)少数种族个体在与多数种族群体成员的互动和/或交流中参与掩盖的程度，以及(2)掩盖的潜在成本，包括羞耻感、孤独感增加、生理应激反应和认知表现受损。鉴于在教育和就业领域增加多样性所带来的广泛好处，了解少数种族个体在面临严重的人数不足和普遍存在的负面群体刻板印象时试图坚持和成功的经历是很重要的。因此，这项研究有可能直接使高等教育机构受益，因为它告诉学术领袖，他们正在寻求增加种族多样性，为所有学生设计促进积极的跨种族接触体验的环境，并创建有助于少数民族学生学业成功的项目。对这些问题的深入了解无疑将有助于制定干预措施，以改善面对消极群体期望而设法坚持的少数种族群体成员的生活质量，并增加能够这样做的个人的数量。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Studies of intergroup contact often focus on how members of visibly stigmatized groups, such as racial minorities, maintain high levels of self-esteem after they have experienced poor treatment or have otherwise been reminded of their group's devalued status. Less attention, however, has been devoted to how members of socially-devalued groups attempt to manage these interactions and the costs these efforts may entail. The present work examines one strategy that members of racial minorities may adopt in interracial interactions in anticipation of negative treatment by others, with the objective of preempting it. Known as "covering," this self-presentation strategy is one where individuals shift, suppress, or otherwise avoid discussing topics that are closely associated with their group membership during interracial interactions and is designed to reduce any negative reactions that their interaction partners may have to their group membership. This project will examine covering behavior on the part of racial minority (Black and Latino) students of an elite, predominantly White, private university, a context in which these individuals are both numerically underrepresented and culturally devalued. In a series of laboratory studies, this research will examine (1) the extent to which racial minority individuals engage in covering during interactions with and/or communications directed toward racial majority group members, and (2) the potential costs of covering, including feelings of shame, increased loneliness, physiological stress reactions, and impaired cognitive performance.Given the widespread benefits of increased diversity in educational and employment domains, it is important to understand the experiences of racial minority individuals who attempt to persist and succeed in the face of severe numerical under-representation and prevalent negative group stereotypes. This research, therefore, has the potential to directly benefit institutions of higher education, by informing academic leaders as they seek to increase racial diversity, design environments that facilitate positive interracial contact experiences for all students, and create programs that contribute to minority students' academic success. Insight into these issues will undoubtedly aid in the development of interventions to improve the quality of life of members of racial minority groups who manage to persist in the face of negative group expectations, as well as increase the number of individuals who are able to do so.