Emotional Reactions to Interracial Achievement Outcomes¹

Abstract

Students interacted with a White or a Black partner on an achievement task. It was predicted that the anxiety elicited by interacting with an outgroup member would lead to amplified emotional reactions to achievement outcomes. Consistent with this prediction, emotional reactions to success were more positive with a Black partner than with a White partner, whereas emotional reactions to failure were more negative with a Black partner than with a White partner. In addition, under conditions of low public self‐awareness, Black partners were given less credit for success and blamed more for failure than White partners. This prejudicial pattern of attributions disappeared under conditions of high public self‐awareness.

Understanding what students bring to the classroom: Moderators of the effects of diversity courses on student attitudes.

“…Cole and Arriola (2007) argued that willingness to engage in intergroup interaction and the emotions experienced in intergroup settings, termed outgroup comfort, are associated with students' adaptation to a diverse campus setting. This construct is related to intergroup anxiety (Stephan & Stephan, 1985), which has been shown to affect behavior, affect, and cognition (Britt et al, 1996; Stephan & Stephan, 1985, Stephan & Stephan, 1989; Stephan, Stephan, Wenzel, & Cornelius, 1991). Indeed, Cole and Yip (2008) found that Black students low in outgroup comfort reported higher anxiety in academic settings on predominantly White campuses, compared with those high in outgroup comfort.…”

Dyadic interracial interactions: A meta-analysis.

“…To examine how participants themselves felt during the interaction, we also examined participant reports of personal affective states. This was of interest because interracial interactions can evoke negative affect on the part of the individuals involved (e.g., Amodio, 2009;Britt, Boniecki, Vescio, Biernat, & Brown, 1996;Ickes, 1984;Stephan & Stephan, 1985), sometimes due to concerns about prejudice (Plant & Devine, 2003;Shelton, 2003). Finally, we assessed performance in interactions by including results from studies where participants undertook tasks with objective and measurable outcomes (e.g., Dovidio, 2001;Dovidio, Gaertner, Kawakami, & Hodson, 2002).…”

Effect of affective reactions by an out-group on preferences for crossed categorization discussion partners.

“…Miller et al, 1998). Anxiety, fear, and irritation often accompany intergroup contact (Dijker, 1987; Gudykunst, 1993; Stephan & Stephan, 1985, 1989). Bodenhausen (1993) labeled the affect that stems directly from out-group persons in the contact situation integral affect, to distinguish it from incidental affect, which arises instead from sources unrelated to any intergroup aspect of the setting.…”