Collaborative Research: The Dynamics of Cross-Gender Interracial Interactions

随着美国变得更加多样化，种族间互动的机会--来自不同种族和民族的人之间的接触--随之增加。积极的种族间接触与许多社会益处有关，包括减少偏见和歧视。然而，广泛的研究表明，与同一种族相比，不同种族之间的互动是有压力的，部分原因是它们增加了经历社会身份威胁的可能性--基于一个人的社会群体成员身份而被贬值。最近的研究表明，人们在跨种族交往中的经历进一步受到交往伙伴的性别的影响。为了更全面地了解种族间的互动，并制定促进积极的种族间互动的干预措施，重要的是了解性别和种族/民族背景如何共同塑造人们在这些互动中的体验。这个项目提出并评估了一个新的、基于理论的模型，即跨性别跨种族互动对人们在这些互动中的体验的影响。为了让我们更接近潜在的干预，我们还考察了人们在种族间互动中带来的特定类型的目标是否会影响参与者的互动体验。这个项目使用一种实验方法来检验跨性别跨种族互动对人们的情感、认知和行为的影响。特别是，我们将测试参与者的性别和种族/民族，以及互动伙伴的性别和种族/民族是否共同塑造了人们在这些互动中的体验。这项研究还调查了互动伙伴的互动目标(学习目标或表现目标)是否会影响人们的互动体验。假设与性别匹配的种族间互动相比，人们在跨性别互动中会报告更多的负面体验；然而，当他们的伴侣在互动前采用学习目标时，人们的负面互动体验会减弱。这项研究准备为如何在所有种族之间的互动中促进舒适和有益的体验提供新的见解。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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 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.