J. Nicole Shelton

The role of racial identity in perceived racial discrimination

This study examined the role that dimensions of racial identity play regarding the antecedents and consequences of perceived racial discrimination among African Americans. A total of 267 African American college students completed measures of racial identity, perceived racial discrimination, and psychological distress at 2 time points. After controlling for previous perceptions of discrimination, racial centrality was positively associated with subsequent perceived racial discrimination. Additionally, perceived discrimination was positively associated with subsequent event-specific and global psychological distress after accounting for previous perceptions of discrimination and distress. Finally, racial ideology and public regard beliefs moderated the positive relationship between perceived discrimination and subsequent distress. The results illustrate the complex role racial identity plays in the lives of African Americans.

An FMRI investigation of the impact of interracial contact on executive function

We investigated whether individual differences in racial bias among white participants predict the recruitment, and potential depletion, of executive attentional resources during contact with black individuals. White individuals completed an unobtrusive measure of racial bias, then interacted with a black individual, and finally completed an ostensibly unrelated Stroop color-naming test. In a separate functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) session, subjects were presented with unfamiliar black male faces, and the activity of brain regions thought to be critical to executive control was assessed. We found that racial bias predicted activity in right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in response to black faces. Furthermore, activity in this region predicted Stroop interference after an actual interracial interaction, and it statistically mediated the relation between racial bias and Stroop interference. These results are consistent with a resource depletion account of the temporary executive dysfunction seen in racially biased individuals after interracial contact.

Disparities and distrust: The implications of psychological processes for understanding racial disparities in health and health care

This paper explores the role of racial bias toward Blacks in interracial relations, and in racial disparities in health care in the United States. Our analyses of these issues focuses primarily on studies of prejudice published in the past 10 years and on health disparity research published since the report of the US Institute of Medicine (IOM) Panel on Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care in 2003. Recent social psychological research reveals that racial biases occur implicitly, without intention or awareness, as well as explicitly, and these implicit biases have implications for understanding how interracial interactions frequently produce mistrust. We further illustrate how this perspective can illuminate and integrate findings from research on disparities and biases in health care, addressing the orientations of both providers and patients. We conclude by considering future directions for research and intervention.

Expecting To Be the Target of Prejudice: Implications for Interethnic Interactions

Two studies investigated the implications of ethnic minorities’ prejudice expectations for their affective and behavioral outcomes during interethnic interactions. In both studies, the more ethnic minorities expected Whites to be prejudiced, the more negative experiences they had during interethnic interactions. This finding held true for chronic prejudice expectations in a diary study of college roommates (Study 1) and for situationally induced prejudice expectations in a laboratory interaction (Study 2). In Study 2, the authors extended this work to examine the relationship between ethnic minorities’ prejudice expectancies and their White partners’ psychological experience during interethnic interactions. Consistent with predictions, the more ethnic minorities expected Whites to be prejudiced, the more their White partners had positive experiences during interethnic interactions. These divergent experiences of ethnic minorities and Whites have important implications for the psychological success of interactions between members of these groups.

Situational Stability and Variability in African American Racial Identity.

Using the Multidimensional Model of Racial Identity as a conceptual framework, the present research investigated the stable and situational properties of African American racial identity. Study 1 illustrated that although individuals’ racial identity remains the same across situations relative to other individuals, the situation can influence certain dimensions of one’s racial identity in a sample of African American undergraduate students. Study 2 demonstrated that racial identity can influence perceptions of ambiguous events. The findings are discussed with respect to how the Multidimensional Model of Racial Identity is a racial identity model for African Americans that addresses the structural processes of racial identity without disregard for the qualitative meaning of what it means to be African American in this society. Implications for research on identity in general and African American racial identity are also discussed.

Negotiating Interracial Interactions Costs, Consequences, and Possibilities

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.

Predicting Behavior During Interracial Interactions: A Stress and Coping Approach

The social psychological literature maintains unequivocally that interracial contact is stressful. Yet research and theory have rarely considered how stress may shape behavior during interracial interactions. To address this empirical and theoretical gap, the authors propose a framework for understanding and predicting behavior during interracial interactions rooted in the stress and coping literature. Specifically, they propose that individuals often appraise interracial interactions as a threat, experience stress, and therefore cope—they antagonize, avoid, freeze, or engage. In other words, the behavioral dynamics of interracial interactions can be understood as initial stress reactions and subsequent coping responses. After articulating the framework and its predictions for behavior during interracial interactions, the authors examine its ability to organize the extant literature on behavioral dynamics during interracial compared with same-race contact. They conclude with a discussion of the implications of the stress and coping framework for improving research and fostering more positive interracial contact.

CONFRONTING PERPETRATORS OF PREJUDICE: THE INHIBITORY EFFECTS OF SOCIAL COSTS

The purpose of this research is to investigate the extent to which social costs influence whether or not targets of prejudice confront individuals who behave in a prejudiced manner during interpersonal interactions. Consistent with our predictions, we found that although women believe they will confront perpetrators of prejudice regardless of the social costs, in reality, they are less likely to confront male perpetrators in high social cost situations. Implications for how targets cope with prejudice and discrimination are discussed.

From strangers to friends: The interpersonal process model of intimacy in developing interracial friendships:

We examine the processes involved in the development of interracial friendships. Using Reis and Shaver’s intimacy model, we explore the extent to which disclosure and perceived partner responsiveness influence intimacy levels in developing interracial and intraracial friendships. White and ethnic minority participants completed diary measures of self and partner disclosure and partner responsiveness every two weeks for 10 weeks about an in-group and an out-group person whom they thought they would befriend over time. The results revealed that perceived partner responsiveness mediated the relationships between both self and partner disclosure and intimacy in interracial and intraracial relationships. The implications of these results for intergroup relations are discussed.

Interracial Roommate Relationships: Negotiating Daily Interactions:

Jobs, social group memberships, or living arrangements lead many people to interact every day with another person from a different racial background. Given that research has shown that interracial interactions are often stressful, it is important to know how these daily interactions unfold across time and what factors contribute to the success or failure of these interactions. Both members of same-race and mixed-race college roommate pairs completed daily questionnaires measuring their emotional experiences and their perceptions of their roommate. Results revealed that roommates in mixed-race dyads experienced less positive emotions and intimacy toward their roommates than did roommates in same-race dyads and that the experience of positive emotions declined over time for ethnic minority students with White roommates. Mediation analyses showed that the negative effects of roommate race were mediated by the level of intimacy-building behaviors performed by the roommate. Implications for future research and university policies are discussed.